Republic City Case Files
by Sokka's Fan-Lawyer
Summary: Crime and disappereances are rampant in the new Republic City;from haunting dragon spirits to kidnappings and stalkers,the weirdness has just begun.Fresh from running from the law,can the undercover Sokka and Toph get to the bottom of the City's oddest/dangerous cases and live while dealing with their own romantic/personal troubles?Sequel to Wakin'Up in Ba Sing Se,3 years postWar
1. Dragon Spirit of Radio 1: the city

**Hey everybody, Sokka's Fan-Lawyer here!**

**That's right, Sokka and Toph are back for more…hijinks? I'm sure that's an accurate word for it…. Anywho, this is a sequel/continuation to my three shot "Wakin' Up in Ba Sing Se" (wow, with that title, who would've guessed the stories were related? *cough* Please, if you have any suggestions about the title, feel free to send them my way…I beg you…), which acted as a fun prologue to this. While it's not necessary to read it first, as I summarize the important stuff, you may want to if my exposition falls a bit short (I'm still a work in progress, after all). If that is the case, let me know immediately and how I can improve, and I will adjust it as needed.**

**Now then, the basic layout of this fic is simple, but different from what people may expect. Basically, the whole first part is going to be Sokka and Toph solving mysteries in Republic City, while trying to figure out an underlining case (Basically, just think of a USA show like, say, White Collar where there is a constant background thing alongside the problem of the day episode, which will eventually build and explode at viewer-grabbing proportions at the end of the season**…**). I am taking suggestions if there are any mysteries you guys want to see Sokka and Toph get involved in though! **

**Anyway, enough with my blabbering! On with the fic!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing outside of some nice pocket lint where my wallet used to be (and I'm willing to part with it for the right price)**

…

Mr. Fuin was not a coward. Even when he had been a child, he was the one chiding his older brother for being afraid to go to the bathroom at night because it was outside. Now that he was older, wiser, and the owner of one of the higher quality apartment complexes in the new Republic City, he should have even less reason to feel ill at ease. However…he glanced over his shoulder; there was an ominous feeling that he just couldn't shake. Perhaps it was merely because it was late at night and the building was entirely silent; as the owner, he felt it his responsibility to take the late shift behind the lobby desk. He glanced out the stone entrance at the dark street beyond.

"The city itself seemed to be asleep tonight…," he murmured to himself. The middle aged man wandered from behind the wooden lobby desk to the entrance. He peeked his head out on the street; with the aid of the City's street lamps, he could make out the figures of two travelers on the otherwise empty lane. He sighed and looked up at the starry sky. Even the Moon Spirit seemed to be taking the evening off. Otherwise, things seemed peaceful enough. Yet, Fuin still felt something stirring in his stomach. For some reason, the past few nights, there seemed to be a heaviness infecting the atmosphere of his establishment. More than one employee had noticed it and has taken advantage of their unused vacation days. What could it be? Ever since he had…._No_, he shook his head to stop himself, _I'll not think about that now._

Instead, he moved on to other topics that merited his attention, such as who had paid their rent in advance and who was being kicked out shortly. It hurt him, but as he looked at his master guest list, it was looking like Tiguh on the third floor was overdue by three months and didn't show any signs of paying yet. "And don't get me started about that bastard Gin on the second floor." Fuin scowled. Was the bum even employed? It had seemed so when he first rented to him, but ever since, rent payment had been inconsistent at best. Then there was the woman from the second floor and the man from the first that he had not seen as of late; would they be able to pay that month's rent or should he be looking for more tenants? While Fuin tried to be an understanding man, when the City came looking for payment for their water and power bills, it was every man for himself, as far as Fuin was concerned.

The man looked up at one of the lit lights and shook his head in bafflement. As much as he hated to admit it, he was old enough that he marveled at the fact that Republic City had, thanks to some crazy man known only as the Mechanist, utilized steam and had brought something called electricity to the City's citizen's. Fuin had never thought he'd live to see the day that electricity replaced torches, but then, he also didn't think he would ever see the War come to an end, and he had been proven wrong there; why not with other things? That Mechanist fellow and his son seemed to have taken up house in the outskirts of the City and had become something of an elusive celebrity due to his work with steam; there were even rumors of his recreating airbending via the steam, but Fuin didn't put much stock in such ridiculous tales. Still, the Mechanist was backed by Governor Tong, so the man couldn't be _that_ crazy.

Still, it was amazing how the world seemed to be changing lately…now if there weren't so many of those damn Fire Nation colonials wandering around, maybe Fuin would feel safe at night. The Earth Kingdom man trusted Avatar Aang's word, but when it came to his promise that the Fire Nation people would not attack again, now that Ozai was behind bars, Fuin shared a widely held skepticism. Just because the boss was in jail didn't mean that the evil subordinates could be trusted, and Fuin refused to rent any of the Colonials who came to him, if he could help it; let them keep to their own kind for all he cared. As it was, the three he had sharing an apartment on the third floor felt like too many; however, he conceded, at least they paid their rent on time; Spirits knew where they got the money to do so, though.

A loud thud shook Mr. Fuin from his thoughts. He shook his head and realized he had been starring at the same page for the past five minutes. Sighing, he set the list back down on the counter and looked around. Nothing had fallen in the lobby, as far as he could tell; the delicate vases were still intact and none of the artwork on the walls had come loose. He looked at the relatively long hallway behind him, where the six apartments on the floor were housed, three on both sides; it was lit by three lights that dangled from the ceiling, but they had been dimmed for the night. Nothing. Mr. Fuin's brow furrowed. Had he just imagined the noise? Had one of the tenants dropped something and dealt with it? If so, Fuin knew that when he next collected rent, he would have to inform the tenants to be quieter. With that, he shrugged and turned to return to his desk.

Suddenly, the lights flickered and died.

Plunged into darkness, Mr. Fuin didn't try to think much of it; after all, as the city's electrical network had only just been installed last year, it was to be expected that it break down sometimes. Already that month, the power had broken down five times, surely this was no different. However, a part of Mr. Fuin knew that something was wrong. The ominous feeling in his stomach seemed to increase as a bead of sweat slid down his cheek. The entire room was dark; not even the street lamps had been spared, it seemed, and the moon was at its dark phase, so he wasn't going to get light from there.

Suddenly, Mr. Fuin stiffened, a chill set in the small of his back: there was someone in the room with him, he was sure of it. He could just feel their presence. "Hello?" He called out while trying to keep his voice level. No response.

He reached into the desk's one big drawer and fished out some flint. With a grunt, he managed to light the candle that he always had set on the desk top. Picking it up, he quickly glanced around the room. No one was there. Cautiously, he turned around and again looked down the first floor hallway; however, he could not see that far down, thanks to the candle's limited light.

Suppressing a shiver, Fuin walked around the desk and slowly shut the wooden door and locked it. Pocketing the key, the owner turned towards his desk and began to make his way down the first floor hallway when he stopped. To his horror, he thought he could see someone standing at the end of the hallway. He was wearing a dark cloak but it was the mask he wore that chilled Fuin to the bone. He was wearing a dragon mask that seemed…to be glowing?

"Ji Fuin…," The figure slowly hissed, as if savoring each syllable. "You bear much hate in your heart for the Fire Nation…." Fuin had nothing to say; he could barely hear the man over the pounding of his heartbeat in his ears. Suddenly, the glowing mask charged at him, stopping mere inches from his face, all without a sound. The owner almost dropped his candle in shock.

"W-what do you want with me?" Fuin finally managed to get out. The figure chuckled darkly.

"We don't want anything from you but your disappearance. Leave this building and never return, or things are going to start…happening."

"I-I'm not scared of you…!" Fuin weakly replied as he tried to back away from the figure. A cold, claw-like hand grabbed his collar.

"Yes you are." The mask seemed to be…smiling down at him, and Fuin swore he could smell a hint of sulfur.

"What do you want with my building?" The figure laughed.

"That's for us to know and for you to never find out." The figure blew out Fuin's candle and released him. The light from the mask's glow seemed even brighter as the man walked into the lobby and turned to Fuin. "You will do as we've asked." Now that the man was farther away, Fuin felt a stirring of courage surge within him; who was this bastard to come into his place and order him out?

"Now you listen to me: this place was passed down to me by my father! I refuse to let some Fire Nation loving _freak_ come here and tell me to get! I'm not leaving!" The figure said nothing. The ornate dragon mask seemed to stare right into Fuin's soul, but he promised himself he wouldn't budge, even if he had to call the police or fight the bastard. Finally, the speaker spoke in a booming voice.

"Then I damn you, Ji Fuin! I damn you, your business, and your tenants under the Curse of the Manasa!" Again, Fuin could swear he could smell sulfur and a chill gripped him, stopping him from breathing. The mask just continued to stare at him in anger. "Just remember, when your precious money tickets come to you, you brought it upon them." Smoke began to obscure the glow of the mask and the room began to feel humid. A loud roar erupted and the figure vanished without a trace. Fuin just continued to stare in shock. The lights flickered and began to revive, illuminating the lobby again; however, there was not a trace of Mr. Fuin's mystery guest. His breath slowly returned to him and he could begin to try and figure out what just happened.

He wasn't given long, as a shrill shriek came from above, followed by a loud crash. Quickly, Fuin began to race down the hall to the staircase at the end, beginning to hear the clamor as more and more tenants were awoken by the screaming. _What have I brought upon us_, Fuin wondered mournfully. _What have I done?_

…

Sokka moaned as he stared out the window. He didn't get it; he had spent years traversing the world in what had to be one of the shakiest vehicles in existence, a fucking _flying _bison, and didn't get motion sick once. Put him on a large carriage being driven by what had to be a drunk madman, and suddenly he feels like throwing up the sea prune stew his sister had made for him before they parted ways three days ago.

"Oh, will you just quit your bitching? Seriously, I'm blind and rely on vibrations to see, yet lo and behold, I'm perfectly fine." His best friend and "wife" rolled her eyes and gave him a light punch on the arm. "Suck it up, pussy." Sokka didn't have the energy to retort. Instead, he just groaned and muttered.

"A lady doesn't talk like that, you know." _Keep in character_. The message wasn't lost on Toph, who just brushed a stray hair behind her ear.

"I thought we agreed _you _were the 'lady' in this relationship." She coughed pointedly. Sokka chuckled dryly, as the motion sickness lessened; the carriage had stopped rocking as drastically and slowed.

"Yeah, whatever; you just don't want to admit you're wearing a dress and liking it, aren't you?" Toph glared at him and her hand twitched; had they not been surrounded by half-asleep people and on the ground, Sokka knew that she would have earthbended the crap out of him. After a second, she sighed and set her hand down on her lap and gave a halfhearted "teehee"; it sounded artificial but Sokka didn't push her on the issue. For a few minutes, the two sat in silence and Sokka couldn't help but wonder how the heck they found themselves in disguise, immigrating to what had to be one of the biggest and most unstable cities in the world.

It had seemed like just yesterday when one of his best friends and brother-in-law (no matter how much it made him cringe at the thought), Avatar Aang, had "saved" him and Toph from Ba Sing Se (if aiding fugitives from the law and justice counted as saving, morally speaking). Afterwards, he had asked Sokka to look into something. After the Fire Nation's 100 year War against the world ended, Aang, as the Avatar and spiritual guide of the planet, and his friend Fire Lord Zuko, had decided to build a city that would unite the people of the world. Populated by people of the Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, and the Fire Nation alike, they had combined multiple cities in the Earth Kingdom with the Fire Nation colonies and called it: Republic City. Two years later, the City still had some kinks to work out, such as the high crime rate, disorganization, and prejudice; however, things were going well, considering. Given time, the project might even succeed. However, there was a problem that Aang was hoping to keep under wraps: people were disappearing. Not being murdered or held ransom or anything tradition: they just disappeared. There was no rhyme or reason to these disappearances except for the fact they were all benders, people capable of controlling and bending the elements to their will. Normally this would have been a problem in and of itself; however, there was a bigger issue at hand. Of the three nations present in Republic City, the Fire Nation had lost the least amount of benders. If the public picked up on that, they would turn to blame the Fire Nation for the disappearances and the whole concept of a united city could be strangled in its cradle. The world could wind up at war again, if no one stopped whoever was behind this.

Sokka smirked. Fortunately, Aang had known that Sokka was sharper than the average Moose Lion and trusted him to take care of the matter. Seeing that he was busy pushing off confronting Suki about their "argument" anyway, Sokka had agreed to Aang's request. Sokka risked a glance over at Toph, who was staring out the window, bored. After they had reunited in Ba Sing Se, it hadn't seemed right to just go off on a mission like this and not at least offer to bring her along; she was his best friend, after all. Besides, she wouldn't have dreamed of missing out on a possible adventure anyway. Plus, Sokka knew it couldn't hurt to have a master earthbender who could also serve as a human lie detector on board, especially with a mystery of this magnitude. The Water Tribe warrior smiled to himself; he had to admit, it was nice traveling with her again. It just felt _right_; after all, solving mysteries and kicking butt were only fun if you had a friend to do it with, and Toph certainly fit that bill….

Sokka paused. There was that feeling again; it was something that had been bothering him ever since their misadventure in Ba Sing Se but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. It could have been due to his fight with Suki, or Toph's new mature look, or the fact that she had helped him out of a dark place of self-pity, but for some reason, when he thought about her, his stomach seemed to clench a little…. It reminded him distantly of what he had felt after the first time he had been on Kyoshi Island with Suki; but that didn't make any sense! He was, however estranged they are, in love with Suki. So what could this sensation really be? While he pondered this, Toph looked away from the window and leaned into Sokka. "I've been feeling you staring at me for the last five minutes; keep it up and I'm going to have to start charging."

Sokka blinked. He hadn't realized he had been staring at her, especially to the point that the _blind_ earthbender could notice. "Sorry; I was just thinking."

"Well, that can't be good for anyone." Toph rolled her eyes. "What about?" Sokka quickly shook his head and unconsciously flushed a little.

"Nothing! Nothing for you to worry about, at least." Toph looked up at him with a deadpan expression.

"I can tell your heart rate's gone up, idiot. Don't even try denying it." Sokka grimaced; she had a point. When he didn't answer, she gave him an odd look but shrugged. "Whatever. If you don't want to tell me, fine." She pushed herself off his chest and returned to leaning on the window. Sokka mentally groaned; he could tell that she was pissed at him. Having the team divided before the mission even began was not a good omen. He had to come up with something to tell her. His blue eyes quickly fell to the bag beside him and inspiration struck.

"Well, if you must know, I was thinking about our cover story. Given the sheer number of immigrants and the disorganization of the City, we should be okay, but it still has me a little nervous…; hopefully, those passports that Aang gave us will work…."

After Sokka and Toph had agreed to help Aang, they realized that not only were they too recognizable of public figures to be able to subtly dig around the City, but after their time in Ba Sing Se, they were wanted fugitives as well. Which meant, much to Sokka's delight and planning, cover identities were needed. Thanks to his connections, Aang and Katara, Sokka's sister and waterbending master, had managed to supply him and Toph with both finances to set up shop in the city and a new identity to go with it; that was the most they could do, without drawing too much attention to the matter. Plus, they felt bad that they couldn't help Sokka and Toph more; after all the adventures the four of them had had, it didn't seem complete without Aang and Katara. But they were more renown than Sokka or even Toph, and Aang had his Avatar duties to uphold, on top of his relationship with Katara; they were just too busy to help, hence their outsourcing the problem to Sokka and Toph.

Of course, in addition to their fugitive status, the drunken shenanigans in Ba Sing Se had created a further complication….

A tan, barely middle-aged woman sitting near them noticed Sokka and smiled. Eagerly, she leaned over and whispered, "That is a beautiful betrothal necklace." She gestured to the distracted Toph, who had resumed staring out the window and pretending she couldn't hear her. "I noticed it an hour ago and just felt I should tell you that the craftsmanship is remarkable! Much better than what my husband gave me before we got married…." She tossed a playful glare at the man beside her, who just rolled his eyes and kicked her lightly. "Oh you! So, how long have you two been engaged?" She directed her attention at Toph, who grudgingly stopped pretending to look out the window and faced her. Sokka was surprised to see that she was blushing a little; then again, this was something of an awkward experience for both of them. Fortunately, they had rehearsed their story beforehand, so they should be safe.

"Oh, we've been dating for years now, but it was only recently we got 'officially' engaged. Since my fiancé's family…fishing business was barely staying afloat, thanks to the War….," Sokka snickered at the pun, but Toph quickly gave him a light smack to shut him up. "Anyway, he barely had any money to make a decent proposal, especially for my parents' satisfaction. But somehow, he managed to make me this betrothal necklace," She gestured to her neck, where a black medallion hung off its stone choker. Sokka sighed; it had used to be her space-earth arm band that he gave her while they were adventuring, but after they got drunk at Ba Sing Se, they woke up to find it permanently transfigured into a Water Tribe betrothal necklace. Despite her best efforts, Toph had been unable to bend it back and so they were forced to include the engagement into their cover story. "I still don't know where he found the stone…."

Sokka laughed pointedly. "Ha, honey, how many times do I have to tell you? It's a secret!" The woman took a closer look at the necklace.

"It does seem a tad…irregular…." Sokka chuckled.

"What part of 'secret' don't you women understand? Geez! This guy knows what I'm talking about!" He gestured to the woman's husband. "Right? A man never tells where he got the betrothal stone." The other man gave Sokka a knowing look and nodded firmly.

"Yeah. It is a secret Water Tribe men carry to their graves." The woman rolled her eyes.

"You just don't want me finding out that it was some cheap stone you found in the woods while you were hunting with your friends."

"Hey, if you need someone to be the judge, I've got a pretty good eye; besides, I grew up with two sisters. I think I know a thing or two about betrothal necklaces…." Sokka offered, coming to the other man's aid. The woman shook her head, but lowered the hood of her cloak to reveal a deep blue, ornately carved medallion. Sokka leaned over and furrowed his brows, as if analyzing the piece; truth be told, he had no idea of what he was doing. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Toph give it a thumbs down. However, he kept on pretending. He tapped the necklace, felt the smooth texture, and grunted. Finally, he nodded and said, "Your necklace is fine; it's one of the nicer one's I've seen, anyway! Though, I grew up in the Northern Water Tribe, so I've seen quite a few in my day!" The woman blushed while the man nodded appreciatively. Toph rolled her eyes and decided to take control of the conversation, if the couple insisted on continuing bothering them.

"So what brings you to Republic City?" She asked politely, leaning into Sokka again. The woman glanced at the man, who shrugged.

"I used to be with the Dai Lee in Ba Sing Se; but once they joined Azula, I resigned and hid among a band of refugees just entering the city. That's where I met May here," he rubbed her shoulder affectionately. "Anyway, once the War was over, I didn't see much point in staying in Ba Sing Se; however, when we heard about this international city thing, we knew that we had to live there; maybe because we're a multiracial couple, the idea just appealed to us, you know? So, we both worked and only just recently saved up enough gold to risk the move. We're planning on staying with May's brother for a while, at least until we get on our feet. " May smiled up at her husband. Sokka and Toph just stared at the man, incredulous.

"This guy's Dai Lee?" Toph whispered into Sokka's dark green cloak.

"Apparently!" He hissed. "Dear spirits, I hope he doesn't remember us…."

"If you had done your job right and not sucked at knocking people out, this wouldn't even be a problem!" She retorted.

"Well, just look at the guy! Look at his dazed, glazed over expression; if there was ever a guy with brain damage, it's him. We're good." Suddenly, they both looked up and saw May grinning at them.

"What are you two talking about?"

"Nothing!" Sokka shoved Toph off his chest and tried to look innocent. May just laughed as Toph glared daggers at Sokka.

"Aw, you guys are adorable!" Suddenly, the rocking of the carriage stopped completely; they could hear the sounds of muffled sounds of hustle and bustle all around them. "Oh, Alphonse, we're here!" She hurriedly tried to get to the window to look outside, but the carriage driver opened the door before she could get there.

"Welcome to Republic City," the carriage driver slurred, reading off a piece of scroll in his hands. "The City of potential, renewgals, and…and," He squinted at the handwriting. Finally he just gave up and pocketed the scroll. "Just grab your shit and get out." He stepped out of the way, freeing up the doorway. May looked excited while Alphonse had a quiet smile on his face; Sokka saw their subtle impatience and waved them to get out before them. May squealed and grabbed her bag while Alphonse stood up and bent over due to the compartment's low ceiling. With a grateful nod towards Sokka and Toph, the couple got off the carriage. Once everyone else had managed to get off, Sokka sighed and slowly got to his feet. He glanced down at Toph. "Ready to get this adventure started?" Toph just waved dismissively.

"Please; calling this an adventure is being generous. We'll get this done and over with, then go to Kyoshi Island to see your bitch of a girlfriend…." She paled as she realized what she said. "Sorry, I didn't mean that quite the way it sounded…." Sokka grimaced.

"You know she's not like that; we're just having a little fight is all…." Toph just gave him a look that clearly said _Does a "little fight" send you running off to Ba Sing Se, drinking like some washed up musician?_ Sokka chose to ignore it, slung his bag over his shoulder, and shuffled off the carriage. He stepped onto the street and reached his hand to Toph. "Come along, dear. You need to see this." She glared at him, but allowed Sokka to take her hand and guide her out of the carriage. The second her feet touched the stone street, her eyes widened.

"Oh…my…; d-do you have any idea…?" Her senses were almost overwhelmed from the sheer number of vibrations and people. Sokka took a good look and was flabbergasted as well.

"I think I do…." There were so many _buildings_, each of varying heights and designs. It seemed that there were buildings and shops and posters of every shape and size imaginable. Surprisingly, most of the buildings were not even in the same style they were used to; instead of the slanted, tile, ornate designs Sokka had seen in villages and cities the world over, most of the buildings were straighter, taller-_much_ taller-, and more clumped together. The Water Tribe warrior couldn't even find the words to describe the immensity of the City. People were _everywhere_; more than in Ba Sing Se. People rushing down the sidewalks, or crossing the street, dodging the rampant carriages and ostrich horses; everyone just seemed to be doing their own thing, but there were millions of things going on at once. Along the streets and hanging off some of the buildings, there were lamps-but they didn't need fire! They were lit up on their own! Above them, Sokka could see an oval-shaped airship slowly making its way around the city, a banner trailing behind it. _Some kind of communication system_, Sokka wondered, but his attention quickly went back to the lights. It was hard to believe that they were only on the outskirts of the city. He looked down the street to his left and gaped; it seemed to go on forever, with thousands of people going this way and that; the buildings only seemed to get even taller and more immense the further into the City people traveled. Sokka glanced to his right and saw a large, but still plain-looking bridge connecting to the distant shore; he couldn't believe that they had traveled over it! The talkative couple must have begun distracting them just when the carriage had gotten onto the bridge! Sokka made a mental note to himself to walk on the bridge later, if only to see the view.

Despite the impressive view, a shred of doubt began to worm its way through Sokka. He backed up against the carriage, eyes slightly widened. Toph glanced his way, noticing the increase of his heartbeat. "What's up?" She approached him while wiping a bead of sweat from her forehead. _Trying to sort out the all this shit must be testing her_, Sokka thought, feeling a little guilty. Still, he found himself admitting his concerns anyway.

"There's just so _much_ here…. When Aang described it, it was just numbers, but now that we're here…how the hell are we going to find someone here?" Toph grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the carriage, just as it set into motion, leaving them stranded on the sidewalk with the other dazed passengers.

"Relax." She waited a second, then, looking annoyed, pinched Sokka. "I can feel your heartbeat; you're not relaxing."

"And how the hell is pinching me going to help?" Sokka snapped, rubbing his now sore forearm. Toph just glared at him, which made him sigh; he could already tell this was going to be fun. His enthusiasm for adventure slightly dampened, Sokka took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, then let it out. Toph patted his arm encouragingly.

"Isn't that better?" She smiled sweetly; Sokka just scowled. This act was already getting on his nerves and they had only just gotten off the carriage.

"Not used to the big city?" Alphonse grinned at them as he and May walked by. "I'm not surprised; I spent most of my live in Ba Sing Se and even I'm wowed by all….this." he gestured to the street in front of them.

"Yeah; it's nothing to be worried about, young man!" May laughed. "Just listen to what your fiancé tells you and everything will be fine; you'll see!" She pulled out a small piece of scroll from her bag and placed it in Toph's hand. "Here! It's where my brother lives. Feel free to stop by any time and we'll help you out however we can."

"Thanks, we'll do that." Sokka shook Alphonse's hand. "It was nice meeting you." He nodded and, while May was waving goodbye, began to make their way down the sidewalk; they were quickly enveloped by the crowd. Sokka glanced around them and noticed that he and Toph were the only passengers at the stop. Waiting a few moments, he sighed and glanced down at Toph, who looked up at him.

"So, what's the plan, oh fearless leader?" He pondered this, then nodded confidently.

"First, we need to find some place to live. To the bar!" He pointed dramatically to a building with a lit up sign that read "The Winchester". As Sokka dragged her towards the bar, Toph sighed. Now her it was her turn to wonder if they actually had a fucking clue what they were doing.

…

**For those that are just reading, I've decided to try and split up the chapters to make them more reader friendly and less time consuming, in anticipation for the update that will be coming out shortly *fingers crossed*. I hope this helps!**

**Please review and tell me how to improve! Thanks for reading.**


	2. Dragon Spirit of Radio 2: first case

**Disclaimer: I own nothing; if I did, Tokka would be canon...or more likely a cannon, given the two we're talking about.**

…

As Sokka reached for the doorknob, the door creaked open on its own, revealing a somber and moodily lit interior. _Well…that's a good omen_…, Sokka thought. He guided Toph to the bar and seated himself with a tired thud. The few, older patrons briefly stopped what they were doing to stare at the newcomers. Two men had been playing an odd game that involved throwing darts into a circular board, trying to accurately hit the center; Sokka's hand twitched a little instinctively. He was more than confident in his throwing ability, no matter what Toph complained. The other three patrons were sitting huddled just a few bar stools down from Sokka. After giving both him and Toph a weary glance, they quickly resumed their hushed discussion. An elderly bartender approached them, smiling kindly.

"What can I do for you youngsters this afternoon?" Sokka wrapped his arm around Toph's shoulders.

"Some Cactus Juice Lite for both me and my fiancé, my good man!" The bartender nodded and leaned down to get two glasses. While he was getting their drinks together, the bartender looked at them, interested.

"So, are you two new to town?" Toph nodded politely, still playing the feminine fiancé.

"Yes; we literally just got off the carriage." Sokka glanced at the bartender, cautious. The man might, after all, try to take advantage of their inexperience. However, if the man had any malicious intent, he didn't show it; instead, he just nodded.

"Ah, another new group of immigrants, eh? Republic City sure has gotten popular all of a sudden!"

"Well, look at it." Sokka gestured to the door and the street beyond. "The lights, the buildings, the culture…it's no wonder its reputation has grown so much! It seems like there are endless possibilities here…we can start over, become anyone we want." Toph raised an eyebrow but shrugged and just tried to look comfortable under Sokka's arm, letting him do all the talking. The old man set the drinks in front of them.

"Aye, that's true, I suppose. Thanks to the Avatar's Harmony Restoration Movement to end the Fire Nation colonies and get more folks to try and understand each other, this 'United Republic' was made. Just you two take care that the big city doesn't swallow you." Noting their confused expressions, he continued. "Most seem to lose something when they move here; due to all the close proximity, the number of people compared to the number of jobs, and gold, the city seems to draw out the worst competitiveness in people…they scramble, lie, cheat, and do anything to earn more gold than the next person. Not that I'm trying to discourage you, of course!" He hastily waved his hands. "I'm just warning you; not everyone is as kind as you may be used to, is all." Sokka and Toph nodded.

"Thanks for the heads up, mister!" Sokka took a short drink. "Say mister, why is your bar so…dead? No offense." He added, glancing at the older men at the other end of the bar, who shrugged and went back to their drinks. The bartender shook his head.

"No reason in particular; it's just the time of day. Most people are still working or otherwise engaged in the mornings and afternoons. Once night falls, this place normally gets quite packed, especially if Pro-bending is going on." Sokka nodded in understanding and went back to his drink. The bartender, satisfied, left them alone and went to the backroom.

"So, what do you think?" Sokka whispered to Toph, who took a delicate sip from her glass.

"I think I'm wondering how the hell this is going to help us find a place to live. Do you think this bar rents or something?" Sokka sighed.

"No, but bars tend to attract a lot of people who've been here longer than us; they can get us information, or at least point us in the right direction of some place."

"And if it turned out this bar was filled with assholes?"

"Then we would've moved on to a different one; the bigger the city, the more likely there's a bar on every block. You should know that." Sokka tsked; Toph just gave him a swift kick to the shin, the blow hidden by her long, green skirt.

"I know; I was just making sure you knew what you were doing, 'dear'."

"Oh come on, I always know what I'm doing!" Sokka rolled his eyes; Toph just snorted and focused on her drink. For a minute, they sat in silence, staring at the glasses before them; truthfully, neither of them was thirsty. Still, Sokka finished his glass and waved to the bartender. "So, as a more experience Republic Citian, where do you think my fiancé and I could find a decent place of lodging?"

"You mean, like an apartment?" Sokka nodded.

"Yeah! One of those. I mean, we can't just live in an inn or a bar or something for our whole lives." The elderly bartender thoughtfully stroked his beard.

"Hmm…what sort of money do you have? That greatly determines where you can room…." Sokka's eyes narrowed a little as he leaned towards the bartender.

"Well, you seem like the trustworthy sort…," He glanced at Toph who subtly kicked him twice. _Is that supposed to mean something, _Sokka wondered. _A code? Dammit, we should've gone over this earlier…well, she doesn't seem to be on edge or making an excuse to leave, so she must be comfortable with him, a bit at least…right? _Sokka hadn't planned on giving him an honest answer anyway. "Okay, we have a decent amount of gold…enough for maybe something a bit better than a barrel on the street…," seeing the man's concerned expression, Sokka quickly added. "But we have skills; we'll find work, but first we just need a good place to get us started!" The bartender thought carefully, then turned to the three man at the other end of the bar.

"Hey Shaun, have you heard about any buildings accepting new tenants for a decent price? These people here seem to be of the decent sort and deserve not to be ripped off." The tallest one-Shaun, Sokka figured- scratched his chin, looking a little nervous. He cast his friends a glance and they nodded, encouraging him. Toph gave them an attentive look, sensing their increased pulses; Sokka looked at them closely. Clearly something was scaring the shit out of them, now what could it be? Maybe something to do with the missing people? One could only hope; regardless, with his skills and the greatest earthbender in the world at his side, the Water Tribe warrior was confident they could take on whatever it was.

"Well…there was this one guy we've been hearing about. Word on the street is that he's losing so many tenants, he's practically giving rooms away...," Sokka thought about the gold that Aang had given them; while it was a more than decent sum, Sokka knew that city prices would quickly make it vanish, if they weren't careful. So a guy giving rooms away? A dream come true. No matter how crappy the room was, compared to the days they spent sleeping on hard ground during the War, it would be livable. "It's in a decent part of town too."

"Where?" The bartender asked.

"The Yellow district. The property is even near the river, so the view is great, from what we've heard." The old man nodded while Sokka was confused.

"Yellow district?" Shaun nodded.

"Yeah; ya see, Republic City is split up into social districts: Red is lowest-that's where you find the…more flexible women, if ya get me…," he cast Toph a weary glance; she just rolled her eyes and gestured for him to continue. "…and other…_shadier_ people. After that, is the Orange District, where most of the poorest folks stuck in and hands on shops. Yellow district, which is near the river and the better-off poor folks stay there, and above that is Green district, with the park and garden shit and middle class peoples. Then Blue district for the lower rich bastards, and finally you get the White district, where all the classiest, snobbiest bastards stay, in their skyscrapers and shit, you know?" Sokka nodded; it made sense, though he knew Aang and Zuko would be pissed when they found out. Then again, it was inevitable, as far as Sokka was concerned; society just seemed to love dividing itself, no matter what the new optimistic Sokka thought. There was optimism, then there was just being plain stupid. Despite reports to the contrary, Sokka was by no means stupid.

"So Yellow district…that sounds better than we were hoping for." He turned to Toph. "Right, dear?" She nodded and wrapped an arm around his waist, appearing the perfect couple.

"That sounds perfect…but what's the problem? You poor men seem to be scared of something…." Shaun stared at his fingers, almost guilty.

"Well, ya see…not that I believe in such things, mind ya! But just two nights ago, someone was attacked in their apartment…the thing was…it weren't by anything…_human_, if ya get me. Ever since, there've been sightings of some sort of cloaked…spirit monster thing, throughout the building. My buddy Ed himself swears to spirits he saw a dragon or somethin' staring at him when he was tryin' to sleep! He moved out as soon as he could, he did." Sokka and Toph shared a confused look, but Sokka couldn't suppress a shiver; after meeting Aang, the living conduct between the Spirit World and the living world, he knew a thing or two about spirits. Granted, this seemed like an odd case.

"So, you're saying this building is being…haunted? By some dragon spirit thing?" He asked. Shaun shrugged and tried to seem nonchalant.

"As I said, only if ya believe such things; ya still can't argue that price, can ya? If ya get the owner now, he'd probably give ya a good lease, given his dire straits."

"Well, apparently there must be something, if so many people are eager to move out." Toph pointed out, but Sokka laughed.

"Oh honey, how naïve you can be! There's no such thing as dragons anymore, much less some dragon monster haunting some apartment building." He turned to Shaun and shrugged, the universal "Women, what can you do?" gesture. Shaun nodded and grinned; Toph, on the other hand, subtly stomped on Sokka's foot. Blinking away tears, Sokka asked, "So Shaun, why would a 'dragon spirit' be haunting some lowtown apartment building?" Shaun leaned forward and motioned for them to lean in as well. After Sokka and Toph scooted closer to him, Shaun began.

"Apparently, 'ccordin' to a friend of mine, back when this area was being cultivated and such for a town, centuries ago, before the Fire Nation went nustso, some of them firebenders and Earth Kingdom folks lived here with some kinda dragon thing; it was odd, considerin' most dragons lives in the Fire Nation, or so the tales say. Anyway, the firebenders tame this dragon thing, see? They used it to protect the town and such and everything was great…for a while, anyways. Generations go by, this dragon thing always living and workin' with firebenders and livin' with Earth Kingdom folks. When the War came on though, the Earth Kingdom folks kicked out and killed the firebenders, see? To protect themselves and what not. Anyway, this dragon thing flips out and so the Earth people have to kill it. So they do it, but bury the dragon in the ground and build an inn on top, so the dragon would always have people around it to protect it and vice versie; they thought if things 'ver got patched up with the Fire Nation, firebenders could return and stay at the Inn or somethin'; I dunno. Anyways, when the War ended and the Republic City was created, combin' a bunch of Earth Kingdom towns and Fire Nation colonies, the inn became a apartment building, and the owner hates firebenders, see? So he keeps 'em out, which pisses off the dragon spirit thing, and now it won't stop at nothin' to get back at him or somethin'." Shaun paused. "..if ya choose to believe such things, 'course…what a loud of ostrich-horse shet, ya know?" He leaned back on his stool and took a quick sip from his glass, only to notice it was empty.

Sokka subtly took Toph's hand and squeezed it, trying to let her know _I got this_. _Dammit, we really should've gone over these signals before; what was expecting, for her to read my fucking mind? Stupid!_ "That does sound creepy enough…, but my friend, we're a tad old for fairy tales. How about you tell us how to get to this place? It sounds like it fits our needs perfectly." Shaun stopped staring at his empty glass disappointedly and looked at them. He shrugged.

"Ya funeral….granted, nothin' to be scared of, but still…. All ya gotta do is leave here, go down the street five-six blocks, turn left and it should be in the middle of the block. Name's Saint Bara. Ask for Fuin. Can't miss it." The bartender glanced down at Sokka, who fished out a few coins and placed them on the counter.

"Thank you, my good man! And get our friend Shaun over there another drink…on us." He bowed a little. "Thank you both for your helpful advice! We really appreciate it." Toph nodded and bowed as well. The bartender blinked, then smiled.

"Well, I hope you two can make it in the big City. Whenever you get settled, feel free to drop by here anytime!" Shaun raised his glass in salute to Sokka.

"Thanks man! Good luck to ya. Though…," he leaned close to Sokka and whispered. "Ya wife don't seem too…talkative, yeah? Somethin' wrong with her?" Sokka just grinned a little.

"First of all, she's my fiancé, not my wife. Second, she's always like that around new people. She's…shy…. All these new things, happening so soon, seem to have overwhelmed her a bit. Don't worry, I'll straighten her out." Shaun grinned and clapped Sokka on the back.

"See ya guys around!" Sokka and Toph waved as they walked out of the bar, bags slung over their shoulders. They closed the door behind them and turned left, walking towards the bridge. They walked in silence for a while, though Sokka noted that Toph seemed tense. Sighing, he began to wrap an arm around her waist; she smacked his hand.

"Don't even think about it." She scowled. "You're lucky I don't kick your ass here and now." Sokka blinked.

"What's up?" Toph glared at him.

"'What's up?' Well, if you're that stupid, then this 'overwhelmed', 'shy fiancé' can't spell it out for you." The Water Tribe warrior almost ran into an oncoming person, he was so taken aback. It wasn't like Toph to take things so personally, especially over some cover story lies.

"I had to say those things because that was our story, remember?" He whispered, hoping to spirits that no one overheard them. Granted, given how self-absorbed the multitudes of other walkers looked, there wasn't much need to be concerned. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean to make you seem weak or anything; I know how strong you are, better than anyone, remember? But we have to remember that no one can know about how badass we really are, or risk drawing the wrong kind of attention to us and possibly the missing people." Toph pursed her lips together, but said nothing. Sighing, Sokka gave in.

"Okay, I'll revise the cover story…how about this? You're the swamp spirit priestess that my overly spirit-obsessed father engaged me to? Swamp princess? Warrior princess? Come on, give me something here!" Toph couldn't help herself but smirk a little. Finally, she laughed a little and shook her head.

"I get the whole cover story thing, and I understand why you said that stuff; I don't mind being a little…feminine…but I'm not going to be some airhead Ty Lee or some quiet, invisible woman like Mai…."

"Thank spirits for that!" Toph raised an eyebrow and Sokka shrugged. "What? She scares me…."

"I don't?" She smirked darkly, making Sokka shiver.

"No, you do, but for different reasons." Sokka relented.

"Anyway, I just can't stand people talking down to me like that…like how my parents did for most of my life." Toph said with a shrug, as if she didn't really care that much; Sokka knew her well enough to know she was lying through her teeth. He gave her a pat on the shoulder.

"I get it, okay? No more coddling." Toph nodded and slowed down. She reached into her bag and pulled out her thin, woolen scarf that Sokka had bought her in Ba Sing Se, which she then carefully wrapped around her neck, covering the betrothal necklace. Sensing Sokka's questioning glance, she said.

"As nice as the necklace is, it would be better if the people we lived with didn't see it…we have no idea how long we'll be living there, right? That way they won't question why we aren't getting married or anything annoying like that, after months have gone by. Worst comes to worst, we just say you proposed or something the day before." Sokka could see some logic behind it and nodded.

"Sure; plus, that opens up a world of possibilities in the disguise department…," he grinned at the thought. "Besides, this whole 'dragon scare' thing actually fits perfectly into my master plan of finding those people anyway…."

Toph looked at him, confused. "How so?"

Sokka smiled again, but noticed that it was time to turn left and he could see a sign in the down the street that bolding said "Vacancies…anyone welcome!" He placed a hand on Toph's shoulder. "Okay, we don't have a lot of time…just listen to me and follow my lead, okay?"

…

"For the last time, I am not returning your deposit until the lease is up!" Ji Fuin scowled at the figity tenant before his desk. The man stood in front of his packed bags and tried to look confident.

"Look, my lease expires in a few weeks…why can't you just let me go early?" The man took a look at the furious expression on Fuin's face and winced.

"Oh, and what's got you running off, eh? Some mysterious dragon freak?" He scoffed. "Some man you are, being scared off by a rumor."

"It is not a just a 'rumor'!" The man protested. "Most people have seen it, and how else do you explain poor Ms. Fink from the third floor? Or the apartment that got trashed when no one was around? Or that Ed guy, who saw the dragon staring at him at night? Not to mention those people that no one's seen for months…the dragon got them!"

"Dragon? Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound?" Fuin laughed darkly. The man just flushed, angry. Suddenly, there was a knock on the open door frame. "Look, I have real customers to deal with, so…," He set a few coins on the counter, along with a scroll. "Just take your damn lease and get your ass out of here. I'm sick of the sight of you." The man quickly gathered the coins and pocketed the lease. Picking up his bags, he turned and maneuvered around the two that had just walked in. One was a tall man, with shoulder length brown hair, and his lower face covered in stubble, darkening his already tan skin; he was clearly Water Tribe, even if the bright blue eyes and confident smirk hadn't given it away. He was wearing a black cloak over his long sleeved, loose dark tunic and pants. The other was a young woman, whose black hair was down and grown out to about her shoulder blades. She was on the paler side, but that didn't detract from her beauty any; if anything, it suggested an air of mystery and elegance. Under her light green cloak, Fuin could see that she was clad in a rather snug, form-fitting dress, one of the fancier kind, which made him hopefully. _If she can afford something like that, then they probably not penniless bums…I may actually get some rent out of them!_ However, despite the heat, she wore a woolen scarf that seemed oddly out of place with the rest of her outfit. A memento of some kind? Though, despite her apparent wealth, Fuin was through off a bit by her eyes; those clear, light green orbs seemed to stare so…vacant yet purposeful, it was as if she could see to a person's soul…. Fuin suppressed a shiver. They both had bags slung over their shoulders, so they were clearly travelers of some kind. The man glanced at Fuin's former tenant as he walked out the door, then glanced at Fuin, an eyebrow raised.

"Bad day?" Fuin chuckled darkly at the understatement.

"Try bad week; that's the tenth tenant I've lost and this building only has eighteen rooms, not counting mine." The man winced, but nodded grimly.

"I see…. Well then, I have good news for you, my friend! This is the Saint Bara, correct?" Fuin nodded. "Perfect! Then, my partner and I would like a room please; whatever's available." _Which would be most of them…_ While Fuin dug out the paperwork, the man leaned against the desk casually. "So, mister…?"

"Fuin. Ji Fuin." The man nodded.

"Ah yes, Mister Fuin…why have so many of your tenants left? Like that guy when we walked in? When he left, he was pale…." Fuin stopped short; had these people heard the rumors? Would they be scared off if he told them? He mentally sighed; chances are, they had heard the exaggerated versions already, so where was the harm of setting the record straight? After some hesitation, he decided that the truth was probably best.

"Well, we've had a few…accidents as of late, and one of my tenants got attacked in her room on the third floor. After the power surge a few days ago, people claim to keep seeing a mysterious figure or a man wearing a dragon mask. I frankly think it's only some hoodlum with a sick sense of humor, but he's gotten some of my tenants scared, so they're packing up and moving to other places as soon as they can. And people aren't coming in, now that the tale of the haunted Saint Bara has spread throughout the whole fucking City! As it is, I have only a handful of tenants left and I don't know if I'll be able to pay the bills…my wife and I could wind up on the street, if this keeps up…." The man gave him a hard, analyzing look, which made Fuin feel a little uncomfortable; he hadn't spilt his guts to this potential client in order to be stared at awkwardly. Finally, the man nodded and gave his partner a pat on the back.

"You know what, Mister Fuin? You seem like an alright guy who's fallen behind on some hard times. How about this? You give us a discount on the rent, and we'll help you with your problem." Fuin blinked.

"Didn't you just hear me? I'm about to go broke; why the hell should I give you a discount? Besides, I've already got an odd jobs tenant, however much of a useless jackass he is; what could you do to possibly help me that he can't?" The man chuckled and his partner smirked.

"Listen my friend, I'm Sou and this here is Omai." Omai waved. "And no offense to this jackass or whatever, but I seriously doubt he's got anything on us. We're the best at what we do, without peer! And we can solve this haunting of yours, without a doubt!" Fuin scoffed.

"Right, whatever you say, Mister 'Sou'." Sou just smirked.

"Go on, try lying to us." Fuin stared at the two, skeptical; were they actually serious? Well, Fuin may not consider himself a coward, but he could certainly lie when he had to.

"My wife and I have been married for twenty-five years, I inherited this place from my grandfather, and…I like fire flakes cold." He crossed his arms and stared down the unblinking duo, daring them to prove him wrong. The man rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"I'd say…true, false, and false; how about you, Omai?" The woman smiled.

"Yeah, same here." Fuin's stance weakened. How had they known? Seeing his surprised expression, Sou grinned.

"You want to know how we figured it out?" Fuin nodded. "Well, for starters, you have a ring on your finger but don't give off that 'freshly married' glow or hold yourself with the sort of subtle aura of…joy? Contentment? Whatever; regardless, you have a ring, but the married live has long since shifted out of its 'wow' stage, meaning the affect is not nearly as present or apparent in your bearing. But the marriage is a dedicated one; you're the type who honors commitment, judging by how you treated that man when we walked in. You're in things for the long haul, better or worse. And, no offense, but you don't seem to be on the…younger side, if you will." Fuin's jaw fell a little; he saw all that from just a few minutes of conversation?

"As for the other two, well, you don't seem like a fan of the Fire Nation given how the names of the Fire Nation colonials are practically carved on your tenant list and how few them there are, despite your available room, so I doubt you eat fire flakes at all, much less eat them cold-which is disgusting, by the way. And the quality of this place does seem old, but if this place really carried down from your grandfather or older, chances are you would advertise its legacy a lot more, emphasize how it's been in 'your family for generations' or something along that line." Sou smiled at Fuin. "Sound about right?"

Fuin didn't speak for a minute. _Could these guys really help me?_ "I can't believe you saw all that, in such a short amount of time…."

"And that was only a trial run. As I said, I think we can help you with your 'ghost problem', and if we do, you'll give us a discount on the rent. Sound fair? In fact, you don't have to even give us the discount until after this dragon is dealt with." Sou stuck out his hand. Fuin stared the man in the eye; he seemed genuinely concerned and trustworthy. He shook Sou's hand.

"Fine but…just who are you guys? What is it you do?" Sou put his arm around Omai and they both grinned.

"We told you: I'm Omai and this idiot here is Sou, and we're the best damn detectives you're ever going to meet."

…

**Now then, for those who guessed, I tried to go for a Scooby-Doo like mystery to start things off…because one can't do mysteries without proper tribute to the Doo. Anyway, I hope you liked it! As you can probably tell, I'm trying to tie it in with Legend of Korra as much as I can, but I had to make up a few details about Republic City since they're being so darn tightlipped about it. So if it turns out to be inaccurate, just keep in mind that A. It's fanfiction and B. this is about sixty five-sixty seven years before Korra (BK, not to be mixed up with Burger King). Things can change in that time span…*cough, shifty eyes* Hopefully, the next part should come out in the next month or so (as I said, I'm a slow writer, so please forgive me…) As I said, I am taking suggestions for cases or mysteries if people have any stories they'd like to see or parodied; depending on how popular the case portions are, I may make a side fic solely dedicated to them….if they catch on or I just can't help myself. **

**Anyway, thank you so much for reading! Be sure to let me know what you think/how I can improve!**

**Read and Review (because everyone needs to get their daily R and R in…the doctor on TV said so)!**


	3. Dragon Spirit of Radio 3: moving in

**Hey, Sokka's Fan-Lawyer here…and will be here long enough to commit seppuku for the delay this has gotten.**

**I'd like to say that I was biding my time and waiting to see how Korra would end up, as to sync the plot with canon as much as possible (and that was part of it), but I realized that for the villain to play out as I wanted (and if all goes well, it will be quite the surprise); however, the delay was mostly due to life as much as it was to plot. This is an area a bit outside of my normal comfort zone, given the mystery element, on top of confirmed, if one sided romantic feelings and that's more than a little intimidating, I guess. Still, once I got started on this chapter, I found that I wasn't able to do the whole groundwork that I was hoping too, basically: an intro chapter, groundwork chapter, villain reveal chapter. But at least for this particular case, that didn't quite work out. Still, let me know if there's anything I could improve on! Thanks for being patient and I only pray that it was worth your wait.**

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing related to Avatar's copyright or characters…provided merchandise and action figures don't count.**

…

"Sign here, and here…and there….," Mr. Ji Fuin mumbled to Sokka as he gestured to the piece of paper resting on the desk before him. Sokka cringed inwardly and hesitantly held the brush before the page. Fuin noticed his reluctance. "Afraid of a little ink, Mr. 'Detective'? Just sign your name to the lease and I'll be out of your hair for the time being." He narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"You know, you're being really pushy for a guy who needs of our help." Sokka scowled and quickly scrawled out "Sou" in the various blank spaces on the page.

"From a guy who claims to be 'the most amazing detective I've ever seen' who just happened to come in when my business was suffering from this 'haunting'?" Fuin rolled his eyes. "Please; this isn't my first time encountering a con man, but now that I have your name in writing to this lease promising to pay me full price until you solve this thing, I'm willing to play along. Besides…it's not like you could do much more to damage my business and reputation any more than this dragon has." He shrugged and blew on the ink to make it dry faster. After a few seconds, he nodded, satisfied, and rolled up the parchment. He glanced at Toph, who had gotten to her feet at the sound of the crinkling paper. "Don't worry little Missy—I only need one signature and your boyfriend seems to be the one in charge, so it's his balls on the line if either of you destroy something or forget to pay me." Toph snorted, but fidgeted a little with her green scarf at his words. _'My boyfriend'…? Is that how we appear_, she wondered to herself. Granted, that had been the goal in their disguise but she still didn't like that people assumed that she was the weak one. _Their mistake—and pain—, my gain._ She shrugged and privately vowed that one of the ridiculous vases in the lobby would meet an unfortunate and tragic end by nightfall. After all, "Sou" was responsible…she smirked at the thought.

Sokka glanced in her direction, probably suspicious of what she had in mind and she quickly wiped the smile off her face and tried to feign innocence. Unsurprisingly, it didn't work. "Don't you even think about it, Omai…," He scowled. "Remember, we have a _shared_ account now so it's not just my ass on the line, rich girl."

"For a guy who promised me a raise and bought himself that fancy hat he just _had _to have match his purse, you're being quite the tight wad 'Boss'." Toph could picture Sokka narrowing his eyes. Now that she had said it, he had to confirm it or the manager's suspicions would be raised.

"That was before we came to the big city, 'Omai', and you bought that scarf and just insisted that we had to rent on the more expensive side of town just because you were afraid of bed bugs crawling in your paranoid ears."

"Me, paranoid? You're the detective here—you practically ooze paranoid from your greasy pores; how professional is that supposed to be?"

"Well maybe if you would stop spending our coffers on drinking with informants, I could afford a shower now and then!"

"Guess what dumb ass, that's how we find stuff out! Like that last case with the traveling circus and the fraud juggler, the only reason we solved it—no thanks to your flirting, by the way…." Fuin watched the exchange and snorted.

"You know, you two remind me of my brother-in-law and his wife…always bickering."

"This isn't bickering! It's charming banter." Sokka turned to their new landlord and sighed.

"No, I'm pretty sure we're bickering at this point." Toph coughed and crossed her arms. Sokka ignored her.

"Whatever." Fuin just shook his head and looked skeptical; despite Sokka's deductions about him earlier, he still seemed suspicious. "Look, I'll be calling a tenant meeting tonight and letting you meet everybody; afterwards, I can show you the 'crime scene' and you can talk to me about your observations. If I don't like what I hear, I'm tossing you out your ass and reporting you to the authorities, understand?" Sokka and Toph nodded. "Good. Now then, I'm sure you'll enjoy the room…but I guess I'll give you time to get settled in. The kitchen's over there," Fuin gestured to a one corner of the room. Toph just ignored him; as usual in their adventures, the cooking would be delegated to Sokka, given her blindness and slight tendency to set things on fire. She could feel Fuin move as he showed Sokka the bedroom which had what was probably a wooden door, given that she couldn't "see" it, another room down the hall that was apparently their bathroom with running water; Toph just took his word for it, as ridiculous as the idea sounded, and trusted Sokka to call bullshit if otherwise.

While they were busy getting the brief tour of the apartment, Toph found herself fiddling with her necklace, as she had often done since the whole Ba Sing Se incident. There were still times when she would wake up and be surprised to find her space earth betrothal necklace around her throat; she flushed a little at the idea of its implications but quickly tried to quash her hopes and shook her head. _Stop it_, she ordered herself. One night of drunken shenanigans did not mean that her best friend was secretly in love with her…no matter how much she may have wanted it to be true, not that she would ever admit it to anyone, much less to herself. She was shaken from her thoughts by the sound of Sokka letting out a small squeal at the sound of rushing water. "Omai, you have to see this! The water actually comes out of this 'faucet' thing, whenever we want!" She sensed him hurry to her side and reluctantly allowed herself to be dragged along by the hand as he led her to the bathroom. "Check it out…," Sokka whispered and she could sense the metallic handles as the Water Tribe warrior reached for one and turned it on and the sound of rushing water occurred. "Hot or cold! Can you believe that?"

Toph hid her smile at his childlike enthusiasm; whenever a new toy came along, he would just become even more energetic. However, she sensed the manager rolling his eyes. _Yeah…acting like hicks probably isn't helping us sell it._ Instead, she just coughed. "Yeah Sou, now if only your Wang was as reliable." She tried not to snicker as she felt Sokka and Fuin tense; she could practically feel the heat from Sokka's blush. While he sputtered a response, Fuin just shook his head. "And with that, I think I'm being summoned by…anyone that isn't here. Remember that there'll be a meeting tonight and…I'm counting on you." He gave them a strong look. "Please." With that, he walked towards the door and shut it behind him softly.

Silence reigned for a few seconds after Fuin's exit, until Toph said, "Well, I think that went well." She navigated away from the bathroom and approached the bedroom. "Only one bed? I hope he doesn't expect us to share…"

"Forget the bed; why the hell would you even insinuate that you and I were doing…it…?" Sokka followed her into the bedroom. With a sigh, Toph sat down on the large bed and shrugged.

"It got him out of here, didn't it? You should be thanking me. Besides, this…" She gestured to the black necklace hidden under her scarf. "isn't going away." _Willingly_, she admitted to herself. The truth about the necklace and its seemingly "stuck" state was a bit more complicated then Sokka knew. If he did ever find out…Toph mentally shuddered at the idea; there were very few things in this world that scared Toph and the idea of her best friend hating her was definitely at the top of the list. She knew she was being selfish and a tad deceitful but when she had found Sokka getting miserably drunk in that lower ring Ba Sing Se bar, she couldn't pass up the opportunity to try and help him out of his funk, just like he had countless times before for her. As she learned of Sokka and Suki's fight and the Kyoshi Warriors' betrayal that had forced him to leave Kyoshi Island (A/N: For more details, check out "Wakin' Up in Ba Sing Se, chapter 1, on sale now at a near you!…or the profile link), a burning anger had filled her veins; how could anyone hurt her friend like that? Even now, the mere thought of Suki was enough to make her want to punch something.

Granted, Toph admitted that she may be the slightest bit biased, given that she had had a crush on Sokka for the longest time during their travels during the War.

So, when they woke up the morning after Toph's helpful "throw more Cactus Juice at the problem until you couldn't remember what it was" approach and discovered their "engagement", Toph found herself in a moral crossroads. She would have given almost anything to remember what exactly happened that night, but when she felt the necklace around her neck, she had been shell shocked. Originally, she had planned on telling Sokka the truth and just manipulating the necklace back into a bracelet after she had apologized for getting him hammered, but then he did the damnedest thing: he thanked her for helping him. They had had a warrant for their arrest, created countless property damage, couldn't remember what they had done, gotten engaged, and he _thanked her for it_. She had not felt closer to anyone in her life than Sokka and when he said it…she didn't know how to feel. But then in the same breath, he said that he was going back to Suki and they could pretend that it had never happened… She fingered the necklace again. Well, she didn't want her friend hurt again. So she had made a quick decision and faked not being able to bend it back. _Was it the right decision_, she wondered for the hundredth time.

She shook her head and focused back on Sokka, who had been ranting for the past few minutes—well, sputtering in embarrassment as he kindly told Toph to never discuss his sexual prowess or lack thereof, in front of their employers. "Was it my fault you were acting like a hick off the street? I know we established that we're new to the whole 'city' thing, but we want this guy to have confidence in us, right? Besides, I'm sure your blade works just fine, Mr. Wang." She saluted him, just because she knew it would piss him off. Sure enough, she could just sense his slack jaw and flushed face, and smirked. "Anyway, I got dibs on the bed; you can be the man in this relationship long enough to sleep on the couch." Sokka scowled.

"Why do you only believe in chivalry when it's convenient for you?" He lamented and tossed his sack of clothes onto the couch from his position in the bedroom's doorway. He did a quick fist pump of victory but quickly stopped when Toph raised her eyebrow questioningly. "Anyway, I guess the first thing to do would be acquire some food…." Sokka took a quick look around the apartment. "This is a decent setup, given the price."

"Yeah, having a 'Dragon Spirit' haunting the place would do that to rent rates. So Snoozles, what's our first move?"

Sokka shrugged and took off his cloak. "As I said, we need food and to unpack first, then go from there. We can't really come to any conclusions before Fuin shows the scene and tells us what actually happened. But hopefully we wrap this up quickly…the money that Aang loaned us won't last long at these prices."

"Right, you never got around to explaining how this dragon thing fits into the 'master plan'." Toph got off the bed and seated herself on the couch that would be Sokka's bed and promptly farted. "So; out with it."

Sokka shook his head in irritation but he couldn't wipe the smile from his face. "Have I ever told you how nice it is to be on the case with you again?" Toph felt a little warm at the sentiment but quickly tried to keep her pleasure from her face; instead, she just smirked.

"You could stand to mention it more." _And more_. Toph couldn't understand it; hadn't she gotten over him years ago? Perhaps Katara may have had a point… She shook her head and focused more on the matter at hand. "So…?"

"Right! Right….anyway, Aang sent us here to find out a mysterious cause behind those missing benders, right?" Toph didn't dignify that with a response and just looked at him expectantly. He slouched a little, but continued nonetheless. "Right, but that is probably a matter that most people here aren't even noticing, or are too afraid to admit it's happening, okay? They need someone to look into their personal missing persons case, all sneaky like, like say…a detective and his sarcastic-but-woman-of-few-words, psychic partner."

Comprehension dawned on Toph. "So once we solve this case…."

Sokka nodded. "Exactly! Think about how far this story's gone; once we solve this case and catch this freak, our reputation will go just as far. With time and a few more cases, people will begin to come to us with the cases related to the benders and that gives our covers an in on the case without getting too much attention."

_Leave it to Sokka_, Toph thought, with more than a little pride. "That's…not bad, Snoozles; you really thought that up yourself?"

"Yep! The night Aang asked me to take the case, in fact." He bragged. Toph just rolled her eyes and hoped she looked annoyed; as good a friend as Sokka was, when he got complimented, he had an annoying tendency to let it go to his head. Thus Toph had long ago adapted the habit of throwing him a tiny bone every so often. "Anyway, I'll go take care of the food problem…and the utensils…dammit; we're gonna have to ask Aang for a raise." He sighed and walked towards the door. Toph just saluted him sarcastically.

"Whatever you say, oh Captain, my Captain. And what exactly do you want me to do in the meantime?" He looked at her and shrugged.

"Well, it's been a long trip and I'm sure that trying to sort through all the new vibrations is taking a lot; you have my permission to take the afternoon off and get used to the place." Toph shrugged but mentally smacked herself; Sokka wasn't an idiot despite his behavior, so of course he would've noticed her discomfort. It was a fair point; when they had first gotten off the bus, she had thought her senses would explode from the sheer overload of different vibrations; there was just so much more going on here than she was used to. Still, adapting wasn't proving to be as difficult as Sokka had assumed; she had, after all, fought on battle fields that were as chaotic as the city. There was nothing that Toph, the greatest earthbender in the world, couldn't handle…excluding romantic matters; those didn't count. Not even the fucking Avatar mastered the art of 'heart bending' right away and if Katara was as temperamental as she was back when they were traveling together, he was still in for a time of it.

She could sense that Sokka had closed the door, which left her with an annoying amount of time on her hands; she didn't feel like trying to sort out her feelings and plans to deal with them (which consisted of the "ignore them until they solve themselves" category), so what else could she do? Go down and check out the first floor? What room had that Ed guy have been on again?

The decision was taken from her by a knock on the door. Through the stone floor, she could get a general feel for their visitor: a short and wider woman, who seemed to be sporting an injured leg. Actually, if Toph focused hard enough, she could get a feel for how many other people lived on their floor. She'd try the matter after she had dealt with the woman, who seemed harmless enough, by her reckoning. With a grunt, she got off the couch and approached the door, which was a vacant spot for her senses. Fortunately, the metal of the knob reached her senses and she turned it, and opened the door just as the woman was in mid knock.

"Oh!" The voice—definitely older, from what Toph could tell—said in surprise; she quickly shook off her surprise though. "There you are! I saw Ji show you and your husband the room and just assumed you were new neighbors…." Toph didn't even bother correcting her; she seemed old enough that if Toph even suggested that she and Sokka weren't already married, the old woman would freak out or die of a heart attack or something, and Toph would have a body on her hands. "I'm Mrs. Fink! I live right across the hall from you." She held out her hand and Toph took it; she could hear the rustle of thick robes and smelt of what she assumed was old person smell; definitely an old person or just one very ripe short guy. Not for the first time, Toph wondered what another person looked like; to her senses, people were just gray outlines whose actions she could read by the heartbeat or other subtle telltale signs the body's insides gave away.

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Fink. I'm Omai and…the man I live with is Sou; Mr. Fuin was going to introduce us to the other residents tonight at that tenant meeting thing going on tonight."

Mrs. Fink sighed. "Another one of those? These days, they're just dreadfully depressing, as he tells us who left or got injured or that the rates have gone up again…there's only so much more money I can ask my rich suit-er, my husband for, to keep living here."

Suddenly, Toph remembered what the man who had been checking out when she and Sokka had arrived: he had said something about the dragon injuring Mrs. Fink. "Oh, are you talking to that dragon thing we've been hearing about? The people who directed us here said something about it." Toph felt Mrs. Fink's blood pressure pick up and mentally smiled. _Wait till Sokka heard about this_….

…

Sokka groaned as he lifted the heavy sack of goods over his shoulder. It had taken him until nightfall to collect enough food to get them through the week, not to mention the pots and pans and other cooking materials. As it was, the stuff he did buy was second hand and probably more than a little used, but he hoped that Toph would be able to do something about it when he got back. He set the bag down with a grunt and tried to find the key to their room, only to remember that he didn't have pockets and that he had left his bag inside. "Er…dammit." He face palmed himself and, with shoulders slouched from exhaustion and a bit of embarrassment, he knocked on the door.

A few seconds later, Toph opened the door. "Why hello 'dear'…we were just talking about you." '_We'…_, Sokka wondered, but then he saw an elderly woman sitting on their couch. She waved at him and Sokka tentatively returned the gesture.

"Were you? Well that's…that's….Omai, who the hell is this woman?" Sokka hissed to Toph, who smacked his arm.

"Sou, be nice! I know you're stressed from the all the moving about but come on, this is our neighbor Mrs. Fink. Introduce yourself like a good boy."

"But…you just said my name…and were apparently discussing me…." She punched him "lightly" on the arm, which made him yelp. He glared at her while he rubbed his now sore arm. "Well, Mrs. Fink, I'm Sou, Omai's partner in crime…."

Mrs. Fink chuckled and gave Toph a knowing look. "Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Sou; I'm sorry to interrupt you while you're trying to move in. Is there anything I can help you with? I made some tea and some biscuits…." Mrs. Fink picked up her cane and struggled to her feet.

"No thank you, ma'am." Sokka grunted as he dragged the sack through the door. He noted Mrs. Fink's near stumble and her struggling with the cane. _A recent injury…wait, did Mrs. Fink? That's the one who was injured by the dragon…._, he glanced over at Toph, who nodded. He smiled. _Clever_….

"Really? That's a shame; your wife and I worked so hard on them…."

Sokka dropped the sack. "M-my what…" Toph shot him a glare over the oblivious Mrs. Fink's hair bun and shook her head. Sokka gave her a meaningful glance. _We can't just lie about this; she'll figure it out eventually. _Toph understood but her glare said _Then you try explaining to this old fashioned little old lady why a man and woman are living together. Besides, wasn't this your cover story idea to begin with?_ Sokka flushed a little and tried to picture how Gran Gran would've taken the news. With a slump of his shoulders, Toph knew that she had won the silent argument. "Er, I'm sorry Mrs. Fink but we're not quite married yet…Omai is still my fiancé, but her father doesn't really approve of me, so he refuses to pay for the ceremony, so we're working in the city until we save up enough." He patted himself on the back for coming up with that. From the teary eyed look on Mrs. Fink's face, he knew she had bought it.

"That's so sad; it's just like something out of a story… Good luck to you both." Reluctantly, Sokka took a biscuit, which made Mrs. Fink perk up immediately. She turned to Toph, "Just follow your heart; don't let anyone stop you from being with the person you love—if they have problem with that, they can go through me!" Toph looked genuinely touched by the woman's advice and bit her lower lip; Sokka filed that under something to ask about later. Meanwhile, Mrs. Fink was trying to get into some kind of fighting stance to emphasize her point, but winced as her right leg fell out from under her.

"Er, we appreciate the sentiment Mrs. Fink, but somehow I don't think you'd last long with that leg. Did you just injure it recently?" Sokka asked politely.

Mrs. Fink's joking mood faded a little and her face darkened a bit. "Yes it is." _Bingo_. The Earth Kingdom woman (Sokka assumed by her skin being somewhere between the tan of the Water Tribe and the pasty whiteness that was the Fire Nation) sighed. Sokka took a bite out of the biscuit and tried to look sympathetic.

"Do you mind if I ask what happened?"

She shook her head and hobbled her way to the door. "Not today, Mr. Sou; I just can't go through it again tonight—I told your fiancé most of the story, so feel free to ask her. Regardless, I must be going, though I'll see you two at Ji's stupid tenant meeting, I trust?" Sokka and Toph nodded and Toph showed the old woman out. Once the door had closed, Sokka collapsed on the couch.

"So 'honey', did you get the food and shit?"

"Given enough time, they're both the same thing, but yes, I did get the pans and stuff; though, if you could take a look at the quality and did what you could to fix 'em up, that'd be great." He reached down from his seat to the sack and began to pull out a pan.

"Yeah, yeah; I can feel how crappy they are from here…is this how you poor people ate back in your village?" He tossed the pan in Toph's general direction. "Fuck!" She hissed as she rubbed her foot. "What was that for, you asshole?"

"Payback's a bitch Toph, get used to it. Anyway, so what did you and your new friend talk about?" Toph glared at him and bent the pan in half. "Oh come on! I paid 2 gold for that…"

"Tough titty jerk. I'll bend it back later." She sat down beside Sokka with a grunt. "Anyway, she and I just talked about little things; apparently, there are only two other rooms with tenants on this floor, three on the second floor, and two on the first floor, including Fuin. So at least we don't really have to worry about much in the way of neighbors…"

"And we can always convert that room next door as our detective office…with an excellent hat collection…." He stroked his stubble thoughtfully.

Toph rolled her eyes. "First we have to solve this case, meat for brains." Sokka's stomach growled at the mere mention of meat. "Okay, first we have to eat some dinner, then solve this case."

"I'd drink to that, if we could afford Cactus Juice." With a groan, he got off the couch and began sorting through the sack for food. Satisfied, he approached the counter and got out his Water Tribe custom bone knife. "I managed to get some cabbage…though the dealer just gave me this suspicious glare the whole time, as if he expected me to blow it up or something. Spooky guy, I guess…."

"Or it could be your people skills." Toph called out helpfully.

"Or it could be my people skills…hey!" Toph just waved in acknowledgment; Sokka just rolled his eyes and focused on the dinner. Much to his dismay, he realized that he would have to be charge of food preparation, given Toph's blindness. He shuddered at the mental image of her slicing up his old blankie instead of the cucumber beside her accidently. _Wait…how did my blankie work its way into my daydream? _Shrugging it off, he focused on the meal before him and tried to ignore Toph's snores.

…

**Thanks for reading! Reviews please!**


	4. Dragon Spirit of Radio 4:meet the tenant

**Disclaimer: I feel like I own nothing; if you're disappointed, clap your hands. *clap clap***

…

"Okay, okay, I call this tenant meeting of Saint Bara to order." Ji Fuin knocked on his wooden desk, trying to look like someone to be taken seriously. The tenants continued to mill about and chat. Toph yawned but kept a grip on Sokka's wrist. She didn't want to risk losing him in the crowd; granted, she'd recognize his heartbeat anywhere, but the other tenants didn't need to know that. Besides, she sensed Mrs. Fink waving at them from across the lobby room and felt Sokka wave back; they had to keep up the pretense and if Toph were feeling more honest with herself, she'd admit that it felt nice. It reminded her of the times they traveled along on Appa and she would cling to the Water Tribe warrior for comfort. It didn't hurt to let her hair down every so often, so to speak. Though she could sense Fuin's annoyance from where she and Sokka were standing, by the building's entrance.

Fuin raised his fist and slammed it onto the desk, bringing the chatting to a stop as everyone turned to him; he nodded, satisfied and continued. "Now that I have your attention, I would like to draw your attention to some of our recent departures. As I'm sure you noticed, our family has gotten a little bit smaller..." The other tenants gazed around the room to see who was there. "I'm afraid Bu left us just yesterday and first floor Ed left three days ago, after his…'encounter'. Gai of the first floor and Fi from the second floor have not returned nor have paid their rent in several months, so I have no choice but to put their rooms for rent again. All of this, of course, means that your rates are going to go up a _tiny_ bit." Fuin dodged a potted plant that someone hurled at him. "Right, who threw that?" A tall man with light hair raised his hand; Fuin sighed. "Don't get me started, Gin; you know you haven't paid your rent in three months. I could evict you."

"Man, I can't even pay my rent now, much less if you raise the rates!" Gin yelled and others nodded in agreement.

"Do you like having this newfangled electricity? How about running water? A decent building? If so, then shut up! That stuff requires money and I don't know if I can keep paying the bills at this rate." Fuin sighed, and the anger on his face faded. "Listen, I know you and Tiguh are massively over due on your rent, but if you could at least pay me half of what you owe me, I'll let you stay for another few months; something is better than nothing and I'd like to think we all want to keep the Saint Bara up and running." Gin glanced down at the floor, slightly flushed; from his heartbeat, Toph would've guessed that he was embarrassed and perhaps a bit ashamed? Sokka would have to be the judge of that. Meanwhile, she felt the heartbeat of a woman she assumed to be Tiguh pick up, and the blind earthbender's eyes narrowed; the woman was keeping something back and no matter how composed she looked, her body was giving her away.

"Keep an eye on that Tiguh person; she's holding something back." Toph whispered to Sokka, who nodded in agreement. "She's in the back row, by the potted plant."

"The tan one? I think she might be Water Tribe…."

"How the hell would I know? Blind, remember?" She rolled her eyes while Sokka shrugged sheepishly. With that, they focused again on what Fuin was saying. He had just been going over a new curfew policy or something of the like; Toph didn't care. _Sokka can take care of finances….wait, he's a shopaholic_….A vision of Sokka blowing their fortune on a Fu Fu Cuddly Poops doll or something and sighed. _I guess if he's got cooking, I can keep track of money…can't let a dumbass take care of _everything_, no matter his IQ_.

"Anyway, that should about do it for this week, but before we all head back to our rooms, I'd like to introduce Sou and Omai; they only just signed their lease today, but let's give them a warm welcome to our home, as I'm sure Mrs. Fink has already done." Mrs. Fink waved her cane in the air to the other tenants' applause. "Mrs. Fink, please just keep in mind that you do have several restraining orders out against you, so please try to not be as...'dedicated' this time around, okay? Mothering is all well and good but there's a fine line between that and stalker." Mrs. Fink crossed her arms and stuck out her chin defiantly.

"Did we really let that person into our apartment…?" Sokka groaned. "Of all things, why'd we get a mothering stalker for a neighbor? If I wanted that, I'd have moved in with Katara." Toph snorted, but she still nodded her thanks to the people around them; the other tenants were looking at them, as if expecting them to say something. She elbowed Sokka in the stomach and he winced. "Er, thanks for the welcome, everybody…we'll try our best to pay our rent…?" Silence.

"Say something funny, dummy." Toph hissed. Sokka sweated, then coughed.

"We'll try to keep the noise down, but you know…" He gave Toph's shoulder a squeeze. "One of us is a screamer…." Toph flushed and could just picture Sokka mouthing "It's her" to the other guys. She slammed her elbow into his stomach and stomped on his foot, just for variety's sake. Sokka winced in pain, much to the amusement of the other tenants, while Mrs. Fink and Tiguh looked dismayed.

"Bu-but you're not married yet!" Mrs. Fink walked over and smacked Sokka's shin with her cane. "Come here dearie, I'll keep your purity save from _him_." She glared at Sokka. "You sir, are sleeping on the couch."

"That's where…I sleep…anyway…!" He wheezed.

Gin gave them a deadpan look. "That doesn't sound like a healthy relationship. The couch is the destined place for workless bums and men who can't leave seat down."

"And where do you fall on that scale, exactly?" A lightly tanned younger woman scowled.

"Well, all men have to spend their time on their parent's couch; how else do we learn?" Gin coughed.

"So all men are pathetic? Nice." The pale man standing near her looked dismayed.

"How can you say that, Hina? Not all of us are like that loser Gin!"

"Oh, go suck a lamppost Kahn. Everyone knows that you…." Gin rolled his eyes.

"No, it is you who sucks!" Kahn retorted. Hina laughed, while the slightly tanned man standing behind Kahn shook his head. "Right Ti?" Kahn turned to Ti, who stopped shaking his head.

"Er…."

"Kahn, you really need to work on those retorts; besides, Gin can't help it if he's irresponsible and lazy." Tiguh shook her head in exasperation.

"You're the last person I want to hear that from." Gin raised his hand and gave Tiguh the one finger salute. She just rolled her eyes, reached over, and cracked his finger. "Mother…! Y-you Outhouse-living-filth-eating-princess-spawn-of-evil!" He muttered while nursing his now injured hand.

"I like her." Toph smirked while Sokka glared down at her. "Oh get over it, you baby."

"Why can you make sex references but when I do, I get beaten up?" He whined; Toph just laughed and shoved him.

"Relax Princess; you just need clean material—there could be kids around." Fuin just watched the argument heat up between Gin and Tiguh and, with a grimace at Gin's cracked finger, he knocked on his desk again.

"Tiguh, please don't injure Gin; if I even want to see a piece of gold from him, I need him alive." Gin glared at Fuin, eyes slightly watered from pain.

"Screw you, old man!"

Fuin just shrugged and looked at Tiguh. "Well, I guess he would be okay with eight fingers…." Gin quickly backed down, crossed his arms and scowled. "Well, that takes care of that. We should be done now, so good night to you all. Sou and Omai, if you could stick around after the others leave, there are a few things we still need to discuss regarding your lease." People began to shuffle out of the lobby and down the hall, passing Fuin's desk. After a minute or two, everyone had gone up the stairs to their respective floors. Just for caution's sake, Fuin remained quiet until Toph coughed.

"We're alone."

"How can you be so sure?" Fuin gave her a suspicious look.

"Sir, remember that we are professionals. Besides, if my partner seems to be almost psychic, it's only because she…has an overdeveloped sense of smell and hearing." Toph almost looked at him with exasperation. Was that really the best the Idea Guy could come up with? Still, she supposed that the explanation was better than "just go with her gut". Fuin's suspicions didn't seem to be abated, if his body's increased heart rate was anything to go by, but he seemed to go with it.

"Fine. A super sniffer. Whatever, I could really care less, so long as you solve this thing. Anyway, this is where I had my encounter with the thing…." Fuin gave them a step by step retelling of his encounter, from the flickering lights to the loud thud, the emergence of steam and the almost super speed of the dragon spirit. When he got to the part about the dragon vanishing and someone screaming, Toph nodded.

"Mrs. Fink told me about that; she encountered the dragon thing as she was walking down the stairs—apparently, it 'flew' past her and knocked her down the stairs."

"Then the next night, my old tenant Ed claimed he saw a dragon's face staring down at him while he tried to sleep." Fuin said. "His shit was packed and he was out of here by the next morning." Sokka rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He stepped away from Toph and began to gaze around the room.

"So, Mr. Fuin…where was Ed's room?" He asked thoughtfully. Fuin stepped out from behind the desk.

"Follow me." He turned and led the two detectives down the hall. "We don't really have to worry about being overheard down here; after Bu left, the only people who live on this floor are me and my wife."

"So you have five other rooms that people could possible hide in?" Sokka asked as he looked at the walls, eyes narrowed. Fuin got to the last door on the left and, with a twist of his wrist, unlocked the door. Toph let Sokka take the lead; from what she could sense, there was no one else on the floor excluding a sleeping woman in the first room on the right, near the lobby; she just assumed that it was Fuin's wife. However, the more she focused on the room, the odder it was; there was a spot that was vacant to her senses. Given that the whole building had stone floors, she should've been able to sense the whole floor. "Not exactly the neatest guy, was he?" Sokka grunted as he kicked over a pile of what Toph assumed was trash.

"Like you're one to talk?"

Sokka scoffed. "I'll have you know that I'm quite the neat freak." He picked up something and gave it a serious look. "If this cup's any indication, I'd say that this Ed was not the biggest fan of alcohol or at least wasn't intoxicated the night he saw this dragon thing…." Toph didn't even bother questioning how he figured that from a cup, but knew better than to question him. Instead, she approached him and made a big show of sniffing the air. After that, she knelt down and, with her ear resting on the ground, she knocked the floor.

"What the hell is she doing?" Sokka shook his head and gave Fuin a pitying look. "Ah, right…'super hearing' and such."

"I understand your skepticism, Mr. Fuin, but trust me; my partner will find something." He kneeled down by her. "Please tell me you have something, 'super sniffer'."

"You're the idiot who made up that excuse, remember?" Toph raised her head and got to her feet. "I sense…there's something beneath the bed." Sokka and Fuin gave each other a look.

"I'd take her word for it, if I was you." Sokka smirked. "My partner knows what she's talking about." Toph crossed her arms and quietly thanked the spirits that the darkness of the room and her bangs obscured the slight grin on her face. To have someone have unquestioning faith in her abilities…; that was one of things that made Team Avatar (or the BoomerAang Squad, as she heard Sokka refer to them) so crucial for her. Fuin shrugged and led them into the bedroom. He turned on the light as they passed through the wooden doorway. From what Toph could tell, the room was empty aside from the space. Sokka grabbed her arm to stop her from bumping into the bed.

"So, what now?" Fuin asked, arms crossed. Sokka gestured to the bed.

"Help me move this." Together, Sokka and Fuin reached down, grabbed the wooden frame, and lifted the bed. Grunting with exertion, they dropped it to the floor. Toph winced at the noise.

"Why don't you guys knock down the wall; I don't think the dead quite heard that." She didn't have to see to know that the two men were glaring at her. Ignoring the wimps, she walked into the center of the room and kicked what felt like a wooden lid. "Damn it!" She hissed quietly. "Why don't you two take a look at this?"

Sokka nodded and approached the door lid cautiously while Fuin gapped. "Well I'll be damned…there really was something there…."

Sokka smirked. "What'd I tell you? You sir, paid for quality when you hired us." He became serious and looked at Fuin. "You don't recognize this?" Fuin shook his head. "So this place doesn't have a basement?"

"It does, but it shouldn't extend all the way to here; it should've cut off after the second room, since all I got down there is a storage room and a room for the water pipes." He shook his head at the lid. "And that sure as hell wasn't there when my father made this place sixty years ago." Without another word, Sokka lifted the wooden lid and gently lowered it to the ground. Toph could sense the metal hinges grinding; it seemed to be a hatch of some kind. Sokka and Fuin peered down into the hatch. "I can't see anything…." Fuin squinted, then called over his shoulder at Toph. "Hey, super senses! What do you make of this?"

Toph shrugged. "From what I can tell, it's a small room made of wood; someone must've earthbended the floor out and built it." Before Fuin could make another comment, Sokka swung his legs over the side and leapt down the hatch. A second later, a yelp of pain was heard.

"Ow, ow, ow…!"

Toph tried to calm the small spike in her blood pressure and kept the worry out of her voice. "You okay down there, Sou?"

"Yeah, yeah…I think I must've rolled my fucking ankle though…ow."

"This is what you consider 'quality professionalism'?" Fuin demanded.

"Look, I got it covered, okay? Anyway, Omai was right: it is a wooden room, about the size of this apartment, maybe a little bigger…." Sokka called up. "Even the ceiling's made of wood except for the area where…" he paused as he compared a mental map of the floor. "…where the hallway is. The stone floor and walls begin there." Toph could practically hear the gears turning in his mind. "Probably as a point where someone could earth bend in…." There was the sound of rustling as Sokka took a closer look around the room. "The craftsmanship is impressive, though I wonder how the hell whoever made this got the wood. You don't quietly build a place like this in a city. Hey, I think I found a trunk!" With a grunt, he lifted the trunk up the hatch. Fuin grabbed it and pulled it out of the hatch and onto the floor. "Uh guys? A little help?"

"Hey, you got yourself down there; you can get yourself out." Toph grinned but with a quick twist of her stance and her hand, she made a staircase from the stone in the hall. Fortunately, Fuin was too engrossed in working the trunk open to really notice. A minute later, there was a knock on the door. Fuin looked alarmed but Toph just shook her head and walked to the door. "Why hello there; we didn't order no damn take out."

"Ha, ha; you're hilarious." Sokka scowled and walked towards the bedroom; before she shut the door, Toph quietly sealed the stairway she had made with a twist of her hand. "Have you managed to get the trunk open yet?"

"Almost…," Fuin looked up. "How'd you get out?"

"There was a staircase in the stone portion of the room—as I said earlier, I think it's so an earthbender can get in and out easily. Did this Ed guy have bending?"

Fuin snorted. "Are you kidding? I don't think the kid could've bent over, much less bend an element. Still, smart guy; made a small fortune managing helping the Mechanist install his electrical and water pipes throughout the city. In fact, he and Bu were the ones who helped with our set up so we can get that running water that you find so amusing." Fuin sighed. "I hope we get this bastard; I want my tenants back."

"Enough with the chitchat; have you dunderheads gotten the trunk open or not?" Toph called from the living room and kitchen area by the door. Sokka gestured for Fuin to move over and pulled out his Water Tribe bone knife. With a few quick gestures and tinkering sound effects muttered under his breath, the trunk's padlock fell to the stone floor. Toph quickly walked into the room and looked over Sokka's shoulder. "What's in it?"

Sokka reached in and pulled the trunk's contents out and gently laid them on the ground. "A cloak, a sewing kit, spare boots…and some firm material I don't recognize…" He picked up what looked like a few long sheets of…earth?

Fuin took a hard look at the sheets. "With that dyed look, it reminds me of…." He reached out and gently stroked the material. "This is what the dragon's head looked like!"

"And there seems to be some tiny lights in here too…wow; I can't believe the Mechanist managed to get his electrical designs down to this tiny size." Sokka picked up and held what looked to be miniature versions to the electrical lamps that hung everywhere in the city, from the lamp posts to the lights in the Saint Bara's rooms.

Toph took a deep sniff and coughed; damn, that was getting annoying. "From what I can smell, I'd say there's earth in those sheets; with enough effort, I'd say an earthbender could mold it into whatever he wanted."

"What kind of skill would that require?" Sokka glanced up at Toph, who swallowed. _He's not going to like this; hell, I don't like it_…

"Enough to probably be a metalbender." Toph winced as she felt Sokka's heart pick up at the thought. The sheer skill metalbending required was astounding and normally out of most earthbenders' normal senses; hell, the only reason Toph managed to figure out how to do it was because she was blind and had a sensory advantage and even then, it required a kidnapping situation to figure it out. To think there was someone out there who might be also be able to bend metal…; if Toph was fully honest with Sokka, she'd admit that the idea was kind of excited. She had tried to teach metalbending to earthbenders without much success before she ran into Sokka again. Could one of her former students have figured it out? The possibilities were entertaining but dangerous too; she would try to discuss the idea with Sokka later once they had returned to their room and ditched the impatient old guy.

"A metalbender?" Fuin's eyes widened. "I thought they were only legends…."

"There are so few, they practically are. I myself only know of one earthbender strong enough to do it, and she's the greatest earthbender in the world…." Fuin paled as Sokka voiced Toph's concerns. "To bend metal requires understanding and skill beyond most earthbenders' reach. If that's the case with these sheets here, you have made enemies with a powerful person…though why he chooses to go with this charade versus just destroying this place…." He paused to contemplate, but shrugged after a few seconds. "Well, the motivation doesn't matter yet; what matters is the how and who right now. But at least there's one bright side to all this, Mr. Fuin."

"And what the hell might that be?" He rasped. Sokka smiled and tried to act confident.

"Your enemy is not a spirit; he's human and he's living in this building."

…

**And that's that for this portion; now we move on to narrowing down the suspects! If anyone figures it out before the big reveal, I'll be impressed; what would be a suitable prize? Anyone can suggest a mystery they'd like to see….how about this? First one to figure out who the villain is (in this case, it's a duo), can request a oneshot from me (preferably about Avatar or Korra) and I'll dedicate it to them. Does that seem reasonable? **

**Well, let's give it a shot, at least: The first reviewer to correctly figure out/guess who the villains are behind this mystery gets to order a oneshot specified to their demands from me.**

**Here's a helpful guide to the residents of the Saint Bara to aid in the guessing, in order of rooming:**

**3****rd**** floor (8 possible rooms): empty, Sokka and Toph (undercover), Tiguh, empty; empty, Mrs. Fink (across the hall from Sokka and Toph), empty, Ao and Saku and Shi (the Fire Nation colonials that Fuin was complaining about in the last chapter)**

**2****nd**** floor (8 possible rooms): Fi (missing), Kahn, Hina, empty; Ti (across from Fi), Gin (across the hall from Kahn), empty, empty**

**1****st**** floor (6 possible rooms): Gai (missing), empty, Ji Fuin and his unnamed wife (right next to the lobby); Ed (moved out), empty, Bu (moved out).**

…

**Anyway, sorry if the point of view shifting was confusing; I tried to write Toph, but discovered that her sensing abilities almost made the case too easy; hopefully that will change with practice and future chapters. **

**Please read and review; they're the motivation to go on and**


	5. Dragon Spirit of Radio: the suspects

**Yep, I'm back with a quick update (by comparison). Yes, it is shorter than the other chapters, but as of now, I'm going to be trying to update once a week or once every two weeks—more than likely, it'll be a combination of both. Thanks to the advice of feliipsun (author of The Search for Precious and Footsteps to the Wedding and one of the most consistent Tokka updaters around—feel free to check out those stories; they're quite good for one's Tokka fix!), I'm trying to improve my work and make this fanfic all the better for you readers! Please let me know if there's anything you think needs improving, (outside of length of chapters) and enjoy! Even if it is mostly dialogue….**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender, or much anything else for that matter. Comic books came, saw my wallet, laughed, and took my lunch money.**

…

Toph's nose twitched. _What is that smell… Smoke?_ Toph's unseeing jade eyes opened and she hurriedly sat up; her faux betrothal necklace shook with her rushed breathes. The covers fell to floor as she leapt out of bed and ran through the doorway into their living room. "Sokka?" She called. She heard a loud thud and a quick yelp of pain.

"Ow! Son of a bi—Toph! You scarred the shit out of me!" Sokka scowled and rubbed his now sore foot. "Good morning to you, too…."

"I smelt smoke and thought—"She paused; what had she been thinking?

"Thought what? That we were under attack by some dragon spirit? Nope, sorry; the only thing burning here are these bits of meat—apparently, it's some new product called bacon…though I was told not to ask where it came from, so I suppose I should've treated it with more caution…." She could hear the smile in his voice; she had been worried about him and the bastard just humored her? "Was poor, whittle Toph having a bad dream?"

She crossed her arms and scowled; already, she could tell this day would suck. "W-well, if you didn't suck at cooking, I wouldn't have nightmares of getting killed by food poisoning." He didn't have to know what she had actually been dreaming. Toph sighed and seated herself on the couch and rubbed her forehead. She risked a glance at Sokka as he hummed while he continued to manipulate utensils with what seemed like a practiced grace. _I suppose not having a mother would teach a guy to cook_. She winced as she heard another muffled yelp. _Just not very well._ "So, how was the couch? Doesn't feel too comfortable."

"Just because you have an ass of granite doesn't mean we all do, Toph." Sokka called. Toph sniffed the air again as the smell of meat and eggs drew closer. The Water Tribe warrior grunted as he kicked the table closer to the couch and set the plate before Toph. He put a fork in her hand and nodded, satisfied; Toph briefly contemplated stabbing him with it. The couch shook as he seated himself next to the earthbender and she found herself squished between the armrest and Sokka's surprisingly toned torso. "Anyway, I'll have you know that the couch can be quite comfortable—especially when there's a pretty girl to share it with." He smirked. Toph flushed and did her best to hide it as she smacked him on the arm.

"Oh, shut up." She mumbled. "Idiot."

"Ow…! Geez, who said I was talking about you anyway?" Sokka groaned, but Toph smirked; his heartbeat had said enough. It was all she could do to keep herself from toying with her necklace, hidden under her scarf; despite her not being able to see, she had to admit that as she had gotten older, she had begun to care about her appearance more, not that she'd ever dare let Katara know that—she'd never hear the end of it. She shivered at the thought of the waterbender's girlish squeal and probable babbling of beauty care methods. "What's wrong?" Sokka asked, mid chew.

"Nothing! Nothing…," She could tell he didn't buy it, so she sighed instead. "I just thought of your sister's reaction to me being called 'pretty'…."

Sokka's jaw fell and he suppressed a shiver himself. "Do-don't even joke about that. As it is, I can barely think about him and my sister…together…with th-those _oogies_…." Toph rolled her eyes; she knew exactly what he meant, and she hadn't even have to deal with them while they were in couple mode nearly as often.

"If I ever act like that, kill me. You have my permission," Toph stated.

Sokka nodded. "You got it…'honey'." Before she could retort, preferably with another punch but directed a little lower, there was a knock on the door. "I got it!" Sokka practically threw himself off the couch and out of her arm's reach. _I could hit you anywhere in this room and you know it_, Toph thought; however, she let him have the victory. After all, it didn't happen often and she didn't quite want to tip off anyone that she was an earthbender—not yet, anyway; if anyone found out, it would be a short guess or two until people put earthbender plus vacant clear eyes and black hair and get "Toph Beifong". Instead, she settled for putting a booger on Sokka's plate and looking nonchalant. From what her feet could tell, it was Mr. Fuin at the door.

"Hey Sou…" Fuin said, and then lowered his voice conspiringly. "Here you go—the master guest list for all the tenants in this building. Go over it and get back to me with something as soon as you can." He shook his head and coughed as he subtly handed a packet over to Sokka. "Well Mr. Sou, it seems that everything is in order here; I'm glad that you are getting along okay in here; you have the best neighbors in the building!" He nodded and took his leave. Sokka peeked outside the door to check if anyone had overheard.

"You're good, dumbass." Toph called to him. "From what I can tell, the whole floor's empty—maybe they actually have real jobs and money, unlike a certain bum I know…." Sokka ignored the jab and sat down on the couch again; he was already absorbed in the packet. Toph shrugged and went back to her breakfast; if he found something important, he'd let her know.

"Toph, check this out." He mumbled as Toph heard the rustling of papers. She waited a few seconds before she coughed pointedly; he got the hint. "Right. Anyway, I was going through these papers and found at least two interesting cases: second floor Fi and first floor Gai. Says here that they haven't been paying their rent…." He paused for Toph to ask the obvious "and we care why?"; when she didn't, he slumped a little, but pressed on—after living with his younger sister for much of his life, he knew how to deal with being ignored. "…because no one's seen them for three weeks."

"Any chance they just ran off together or something? I hear Ba Sing Se's got some good "spur of the moment" marriage places that don't ask questions."

Sokka smirked but shook his head. "Nope, nothing like that. As far as Fuin could tell, they didn't even talk to each other. Not to mention they left all their money and items in their rooms. And no, they don't work at the same place. No, all they have linking them together is…." He trailed off.

"Their bending." Toph finished. "So….!"

"…we have our first victims! Chances are, they got taken by whatever's been taking benders. And Fi was a waterbender and Gai an earthbender, so it fits the M.O. pretty well. Aang did say that these disappearances had been going on for a while now, so I doubt it's a coincidence…."

"…that these two go missing, off all people. Though…."

"…we shouldn't assume that's the problem; you're right, Toph." Sokka grinned as he attempted to give her a pat on the head, but the changed his mind. "We'll have to find out if they were in with any bad crowds…."

"But it's safe to say that Fuin's thingie doesn't have that kind of info? I mean, they could always…."

"…lie. No, our best bet for now is gossip, probably Mrs. Fink, and, when we have a chance to get an in with the local police, we…."

"…deal with it then." Toph finished. They paused and blinked, as they realized they had just spent the past minute finishing each other's sentences. Sokka coughed and turned back to the papers. "Anyway," Toph began, as she tried to break the awkward moment. "…what about those schmucks we saw last night at the meeting? Anything about them we could connect to the dragon thing? An earthbender, perhaps?" Sokka shrugged. "…maybe you should just go through all of them, just for the sake of the sight-impaired people in the audience."

Sokka shrugged again, but set his unfinished breakfast down on the floor as he replaced it with the stack of papers. "Well, what do you want to know? We have this Gin guy…." He squinted as he tried to read Fuin's sloppy handwriting. "Huh. Turns out the guy's about 600 gold in the red—he hasn't paid rent for the past three months." Toph gapped.

"How much? How expensive is this place? Can _we _even afford it?" She didn't have to see to know that Sokka was looking sheepish. "Oh you idiot."

"Remember, we're living off Aang and Zuko's dime—why shouldn't we try to get into a respectable building? No one's going to try and hire us if they have to track us down through a minefield of hobos and 'service' workers!" Sokka protested, and then shifted his focus back on the papers. "Ahem, _anyway_…it seems he isn't even the worst one here. No, that honor goes to Tiguh." He glanced at his partner-in-crime. "2400 gold—she hasn't paid in a year."

"Ho-how in the hell do they keep staying here? Seriously, what do they have on Fuin? Anywhere else, they'd be out on their asses."

"Well, it says here that he was going to kick them out, but Gin has helped Fuin out around the place, when Bu was busy…."

"Bu?"

"That guy who left before we talked to Fuin, remember? Anyway, he was apparently the handy man around here, but Gin works freelance and has a wide variety of experience…especially in being a tightwad."

"Sounds like someone I know," Toph rolled her eyes. Sokka slumped, but refused to retaliate—he was on an exposition role and, spirits knew, that meant he would keep talking long after everyone else had stopped listening.

"Anyway, it doesn't say anything about why he hasn't kicked Tiguh out, but he was getting close to getting past whatever it was; last month, Fuin told her that if she didn't pay at least half by next week, he'd have her arrested."

"…you know, Fuin takes very thorough records…." Toph commented. "Almost seems a little too convenient."

"You think he may be faking these to cast suspicion on someone else?"

Toph shrugged. "I'm just saying, we shouldn't rule anything out."

"That's fair, but I don't think it's him—from what I can tell, it's just his personality….besides, he has to have such detailed records; this is a developing city after all, so things are bound to get lost and bite you in the ass if you're not careful." He coughed. "Anyway, from what I can tell, Tiguh works at a local factory—apparently, she helps build pipes for the plumbing systems around the city."

"She a bender?"

"Not that Fuin knows, but it seems awfully convenient that this dragon would appear right before she was supposed to pay up…with so many people avoiding this place, it makes her debt a lot easier to ignore, doesn't it?"

"Yeah…you have a point there, not to mention I felt her heartbeat last night—she's hiding something." Sokka smiled.

"That's the partner I know!" She smirked back.

"Well, it's somewhere to start, at least. What about the others? Anyone else suspicious?"

"There are Ao, Shi, and Saku: three brothers from the Fire Nation colonies; they're apparently working at the power plant. The Mechanist's system involves firebenders bending lightning at generators or something—I'm still trying to wrap my head around it—but they seem pretty solid financially, according to Fuin, despite his distrust of Fire Nation people. Still, they pay their rent and work for most of the day—other than that, they keep to themselves for the most part.

"Other than that, there's Mrs. Fink; as far as I can tell, she's been here for as long as this place's been built—or eternity. Outside of a few stalkerish tendencies…."

"How stalkerish?"

Sokka stroked his chin as he considered her question. "I'd say…Meng level. She's gotten complaints, but she's a lovable enough old lady, most just chalk it up to a mother's instinct and tolerate her. She's got two kids in the Dai Lee, but as far as Fuin knows, she's not an earthbender; they're the ones who support her financially. Otherwise, she appears to be clean…."

"What about those two guys last night? Tea and Khan?"

"_Ti _and _Kahn_ live on the second floor. They both have their own room, but they are brothers. Ti is a waterbender and works for the park service, while Kahn is a grunt for the police force—he can't bend, it seems. Money-wise, they seem to be fine and are under the radar, though Kahn is known to be something of a hothead and has destroyed more than his fair share of furniture."

"Why separate rooms though? That seems to be a bit expensive; hell, even we have to share a bed."

"Since when do I get to sleep on the bed?"

Toph smirked. "I was speaking rhetorically; besides, you couldn't keep with me anyway."

Sokka flushed and Toph smiled again at the increase in his heart beat. "A-anyway, outside of them, there's Hina, their neighbor. An innocent kid and consistent with her rent, though Fuin isn't aware of her job or where she lived before; given his current desperation, the old man doesn't seem like he's going to question it either." Toph frowned. After Azula's deception in Ba Sing Se, she and Sokka knew that rarely was there a good reason to be mysterious—secretive people were always seemed to be hiding from someone or plotting something. Whether it be they kicked a baby or were plotting killing the moon, secrets always seemed to bite someone in the ass. Not that they were ones to talk, of course.

Sokka seemed to share her thoughts, if his troubled sigh was anything to go on. "We should try looking into her—she may know something about either the dragon or the missing benders." A thought seemed to strike him and he smirked.

Toph gave him a confused look. "What do you have in mind?"

"Well, we need to get to know our neighbors, right? See how they act, talk…right now, we have some facts but, my dear partner, that is not enough!" He folded his hands and stroked his scruffy chin as he tried to look distinguished; Toph was to curious about where he was going with this that she didn't even bother to point out that the effect was wasted on her.

"Obviously…so what do you have in mind?" She repeated. "We should probably check out their work places, get a feel for how they act outside of Fuin's supervision…they may hang out with some crazy people or something."

Sokka nodded. "An excellent idea, and one we could use, but the problem is that until we get some more street cred or at least some kind of authority, we'll just call more attention to ourselves if we get too close or questioning. Maybe we could get away with being a curious couple looking to get into the power trade or something…no, but our big idea is that we need to get Fuin away—you're definitely right about that…."

As much as Toph liked Sokka, if he kept up this melodramatic buildup, she was going to kill him. "And…?"

"'And' my friend, we're going to be hosting a party."

…

**And that's it for this week! I hope you liked it, even if it was mostly dialogue…. From now on, I will try to update this story once a week or at the least, once every two weeks. As I say, I'm a slow writer, but I hope that I'm improving. If you have any requests (ideas, cameos from other characters, etc), feel free to mention them and if I use them, you will get credit/a shout out! Anyway, on the subject of that "guess the villain" contest thing, here's that summary of the building again! Remember, first one to figure it out and say so in a review or PM, gets to request a oneshot from me! (Preferably an Avatar or Korra one, and not YAOI or YURI):**

**Saint Bara: 22 rooms**

**3rd floor: Sokka and Toph, Mrs. Fink, Tiguh (water tribe, massively over due on rent; dragon's appearance makes her desperate rent acceptable), and 3 fire nation colonials work at steam plant.**

**2nd floor: Fi (missing water bender), Kahn, Ti (Kahn's brother, water bender), Gin (earth nation nonbender, lazy, and over due on rent), Hina (water bender, works at a fabric shop and Kahn loves her)**

**1st floor: Gai (missing earthbender), Ed (moved out, has secret wooden trapdoor for bad guy's), Ji Fuin and his wife, Bu (guy who was checking out the day Sokka and Toph arrived, earth bender and handy man)**

**Basement: Secret wooden room, piping and stuff, and storage space.**

**Thanks for reading and please read and review!**


	6. Dragon Spirit of Radio 6: narrowing down

**Hey there! Sokka's Fan-Lawyer here!**

**That's right, I'm back for an update! For those that noticed that I shortened the chapters, I wanted to try and make them more reader friendly, so expect chapters to only be 3000-4000 words at the most, but that hopefully means quicker updates! I know I have no excuse to justify how long it's been, but it's been a semester of growth that will hopefully influence my writing. I'm trying to incorporate as much canon material as I can!**

**Also, reviewer and friend feliipsun (check out her awesome Tokka fics sometime) pointed that I was putting too much emotion in Toph's eyes and I tried countering her with some weak reasoning—now that I'm rewatching the series, I can see that her ocular emotion expressions weren't as vivid as I thought. Therefore, I can only apologize to you all and swear that I'll try to take that more into account as I go! Thank you all for your continued support (and if you have a request, feel free to mention it and I'll try to incorporate it into the story) and enjoy the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own ATLA or its characters, but I do call dibs on the copyright once it goes public. **

…

Sokka groaned as he carried up another sack full of food, all the while knowing that, despite his growling stomach, he wasn't allowed to eat, no matter how tempting the smell of the recently boiled sea prunes were giving off. After going through the list of tenants Mr. Fuin had provided, Sokka and Toph had contacted him the next day and mentioned their idea. The plan, of course, was for them to get to know the other tenants without the "influential" (or, as Toph referred to it, "buzzkill") presence of Fuin. Now that they had narrowed the suspects to one of the building's tenants, it was crucial that everyone was as relaxed as possible. Fuin thought that this was agreeable and thought tomorrow night seemed like a fine time to take the missus to a night at the theatre anyway (on Sokka's dime, of course—just because Fuin was generous, he insisted, didn't mean that he wasn't opportunistic); fortunately, after looking at the nearly empty pouch that was their money supply—the part that Sokka had on him; most of it was entrusted to Toph by Aang, for reasons that continued to elude the Water Tribe warrior—, Sokka had managed to talk the landlord into chipping in some food. So, while Toph was busy moving their furniture and talking to Mrs. Fink, who had quickly become the source of almost all the gossip in the building and needed constant care and watering, just like another informant or household plant, Sokka had been delegated to shop for food, on top of what Fuin had provided, and then he would be in charge of letting everyone else know, so he could get a peek into their rooms.

"This sucks," He muttered as he nearly tripped on another stair. "It seems like I'm doing all the work! Why can't Toph do this? Oh. Right. Blindness." She wouldn't have been able to see the interior of the rooms, how they were set up, or any of the details that Sokka would recognize as important, and she probably wouldn't have been able to get them the right food—well, he amended, she probably _could_, it just would take time and there would probably be a few poisoned casualties in the process. _Why do I always forget about her sight_, he pondered for the umpteenth time, mostly because Toph always mocked him every time he forgot and it made him feel like an ass. It's just that she always seemed so knowing and observant about other people that it made it easy to forget that she couldn't actually see.

The more Sokka thought about it, the more he realized just how limited Toph was, despite her strength and bending. Naturally, she'd kill him for even thinking that—he was slightly suspicious that she could read minds—, but he couldn't help but think back to the Serpent's Pass, when she had been trapped in the water.

_She couldn't do anything…. _It was not a thought anyone normally applied to Toph; she was, after all, the greatest earthbender in the world, but for the brief time she had been in that water, Toph had been helpless. Sokka shuddered a bit at the memory. Had Suki not been so quick, Toph—HIS best friend—could have died, all because he had been too worried about his boots. To this day, he found himself wondering why he had hesitated; after all, he had just been freshly wounded by his inability to protect Yue, and even though he had been hung up on protecting Suki, he knew that Toph was close enough to him and the rest that he would have never forgiven himself if she had died.

He was not afraid to admit that it was not one of his proudest moments.

However, if his own reaction to Toph's "accident" had been odd, then Toph's reaction had been even weirder: once Suki had grabbed her, Toph—in front of everybody—had kissed Suki; granted, they hadn't heard what the two had said to each other while they were out there in the water, and Suki had never told him what she had said whenever he asked her after they broke her out of the Boiling Rock—she'd only shrug and just say "It was nothing Sokka; she had been a bit worried that she, oh, I don't know, _almost drowned_ because a certain someone couldn't get their boots wet." That normally shut him up. But for some reason, he found himself unable to let it go. What had those words been? Why had she kissed Suki? Had his hands not been full, he would've yanked on his shoulder-length hair in irritation; he liked figuring things out, but he didn't have nearly enough pieces of the puzzle to guess; his only chance was to just ask Toph, but he was hesitant to bring it up; after everything that happened with Suki—the fight, the exile—, it just seemed like an awkward subject to ask about.

Well, regardless of what happened at the Pass, he had been able to save her during the Sozin's Comet battle. The Water Tribe warrior smirked a little at his victory, but then frowned as the implications set in. To be dangling all those miles in the air, blind, the only lifeline the hand of an idiot who thought himself a warrior? He frowned and looked down at the stone stairs; by his count, he was almost to the third floor. Still, the more he thought about it, the more he realized just how frightening that must have been for Toph—at least he had been lying on one of the air ship's bridges and could see—the only thing she could have "seen" then was his arm. She hadn't panicked—no, she had seemed resigned to death.

Sokka paused in his tracks as a chill crept up his spine.

Toph had been resigned to die. He began to move up those final few steps. He was ashamed. Granted, there had not been much he could have done in that situation—he had already used up his weapons—but that didn't stop his guilt—after Yue, he had promised himself that when he was around, no one would be allowed to feel like that. Whether it be through humor or his fighting skills, Sokka would do anything in his power to protect the people he loved from ever feeling like that again.

He set the bag in his right hand onto the floor and unlocked the door. As it swung open, he saw Toph looking in the general direction of the stove, a hungry look on her face. He glanced at the food he was carrying and smiled a bit. _Whenever she falls, I'll be there to pick her up…hopefully in a way she doesn't notice, otherwise she'll beat the crap outta me._ Toph, without even looking away from the kitchen from her seat on the couch that was now pressed against the wall next to the door, spoke, "What's wrong, Snoozles? You're menopause kick in early or something? I could feel you stop starting all the way up the stairs." She paused, as she focused her earthbending mojo. "And you may want to work out or something—your heartbeat's a mess."

"Nice to see you too." Sokka flushed and rolled his eyes while he walked over to the kitchen and turned the stove on; all the while, he prayed to Yue that Toph hadn't discovered how to read minds yet and prove him right. Toph just shrugged and slumped even further down on the couch; she was practically falling off of it.

"What the hell took you so long? I'm starving!" She groaned.

"I was buying the food for that party thing tomorrow, remember? The plan? I had to carry six bags full of crap up here—it's not like you volunteered to help or anything."

"Well sorry, Katara—I thought a strong, manly man like you could handle it on your own." Sokka paused at that. He really was acting like his sister, wasn't he? He shivered. _No, it can't be true! _It sucked being the delegated chef; as he set the last of the bags on the counter, he vowed to himself that he would never complain about his sister's cooking again. "Well? Get anything good?" While he talked, he got out the pan that Toph had repaired after she bent it and set about making lunch.

"C'mon, think about who you're talking to," he scoffed. "I got it all—moose-lion meat, sea prunes, dough, the works!"

"Good work, Captain Boomerang," Toph saluted as she began to pick her nose.

"At ease, Colonel Melon Lord," Sokka saluted back, only to pause. _Dammit_—_forgot_ _again_. "Anyway, how did your end of the deal work out? Was Mrs. Fink annoying?"

Toph grinned. "What do you think?"

"Okay, dumb question, I'll give you that one. But did you get anything out of her?"

"Besides twice our weight in cookies and her gushing over her grandkids?" Toph grimaced a little. "Seriously, I'm never having kids, if it just makes you so gushy all the time—the oogies were strong with her; you probably wouldn't have been able to handle it."

"Yeah, yeah; did you get anything besides the oogies? Like any suspects we can hopefully rule out?"

Toph rested her chin on her hand and looked in Sokka's direction. "Actually, yes I did; we don't have to worry about those three Fire Nation colonials on our floor; they were the ones who found Mrs. Fink after the Dragon attacked her. They apparently heard the commotion she made and thundered down the stairs from the third floor and helped her back to her room."

"What makes you so sure they aren't involved? Even if none of them were the Dragon, they could still be helping the plot—set up the lore, spread the fear, reap the benefits once everything has blown over."

"I thought of that too, Snoozles; you think I'm stupid? Just think about it, though. What do Ow, Chi, and Sakura have to gain by scaring everyone out of the building? They already have steady income. Frankly, being Fire Nation would make it difficult to find a room anywhere else."

Sokka stroked his chin thoughtfully while keeping an eye on the pan he had set on the burning stove. "Actually, being Fire Nation at all is already putting them in a bad position—why would they want to add more crap onto their plate by faking a Fire Nation Dragon Spirit? That would only make people hate them more. The fact that they're still honest about their ethnicity, despite the prejudice, makes them less likely. . ." He paused. "I still wouldn't rule them out—"

"Aw, what happened to the new, improved, positive Sokka?" Toph chuckled.

"He had a fight with his girlfriend and got drunk in Ba Sing Se—he'll come back as soon as the search warrant and charges are dropped." He glared at her while she just shrugged. "Anyway, we should never rule anyone out until the end, but yeah, we don't have to worry about them. No, what I'm worried about is the fact that this is trying to hurt the Fire Nation colonials' reputation. As it is, they don't show their faces much—if firebenders weren't needed to keep the electricity running, chances are people would be much more hostile."

Toph nodded. "Yeah, even while I was travelling around trying to recruit metalbending students and the falling through of the Harmony Restoration Movement—great name, by the way. . ."

"It's a gift."

". . .right. Anyway, Fire Nation people still are being avoided now—that hatred'll probably take decades to go away."

"Right, and anything like this Dragon thing could set that back even more, which leads me to the next thing: could this Dragon person be connected to the bender disappearances? Remember, they're kidnapping waterbenders and earthbenders, but not the firebenders—they're trying to single them out, the same as this guy is doing here."

Now it was Toph's turn to stroke her chin in thought. "You have a point, Snoozles."

"Which just makes this case all the more important, if that's what's at stake. We can't let these guys have their way, and we definitely don't want to pass up a potential lead." Toph nodded. "Good work, Toph. Now then," He turned back to the pan and shifted it slightly to move the contents around. "I've been thinking about Fuin's story and I think we're looking for a duo."

"What makes you so sure?" Toph asked, though Sokka could tell from the tone of her voice that she already had an idea of where he was going.

"Simple: the steam that appeared around the Dragon was more than likely a waterbender, but there also has to be an earthbender involved, to make the mask and get at the stuff, you know? The one who's probably good enough to metalbend?"

"Or," Toph said. "The steam could've been a firebender heating up the water in the pipes." Sokka shook his head, then paused. _She probably couldn't see that. . .I really need to get better at that_. "I can tell you're shaking your head, dumbass, so stop getting your panties in a bunch and just tell me why you disagree with my brilliant idea?"

_There's the Toph I know_. "From the way Fuin described it, the steam was very steady and consistent, which suggests control; a firebender, as our good frienemy Zuko has been nice enough to demonstrate in the past, typically doesn't have that when countering water, especially if they broke through the pipes, with the water pressure and all. No, the 'spirit' can control the amount of steam he spread and where it went."

"What makes you so sure it's a guy? We don't know that Tiguh girl's abilities, or Hina for that matter." Toph crossed her arms and all but dared him to say something sexist. _She's been influenced too much by Katara_, he mentally sighed. Then again, he knew that it was less likely she was standing up for feminism than it as she was just trying to piss him off.

"Trust me, after dealing with you, Suki, Azula and her crazy trio, I don't underestimate anyone."

"Damn right." Toph smirked "So, we're looking for a duo, likely benders; or we could just say the entire building's in on it and call it a day—after all, a nonbender could've made that mask, which means that we could have at least three people in on it."

"Make a mask that well without tools? I doubt it." Toph gestured pointedly to her betrothal necklace and cocked an eyebrow. "Or they could just store their tools under their bed. Fine. Or their wooden trunk or their underwear drawer or somewhere else you can't see them." He added quickly before she could point out that she'd probably feel the tools' presence if they were lying under a bed through the earth in the metal. "So where does that leave us?"

"Well, we can count out Fuin, his wife—probably; we really shouldn't assume, should we?—, Gin, Mrs. Fink, those Fire Nation colonials whose names I never remember, and the two missing benders. That leaves us with Ti the waterbender, Tiguh—hey, you're the one who said she was Water Tribe; who knows, she may be a waterbender, Gin, Kahn, and. . .Hina, who we know nothing about."

"Perfect. . ."Sokka sighed. "Hopefully we can root 'em out at the party. Speaking of that, did you tell Mrs. Fink about it?"

Toph snorted. "Of course I did. I figure by nightfall, everyone in the entire building will hear about the party—well, that and the story of when you wore your sister's clothes."

Sokka dropped the hot pan he had been holding and gawked, "You told her WHAT?"

"Come on Sokka, think—I know it's difficult, but try for the rest of us, okay? Fink is a gossip. Therefore, I had to give her something juicy—I'm not an idiot."

"Well no, but that never happened! EVER!" Sokka flushed.

"That's not what Katara told me…." Toph replied in that sing-song tone of voice that made Sokka want to face-palm himself.

"It was one time! Besides, that wasn't with Katara, it was with Suki—!" He cut himself off. A silence fell.

"…do you want to talk about it?" Toph asked after a few seconds had passed. Sokka sighed and looked at his friend, at her blank, unseeing eyes—they were stagnant, but from the subtle crook of an eyebrow, the tiniest downward turn of her mouth, Sokka could tell that she was concerned—after being her best friend for four years, he had become well-versed in Toph's body language. He was willing to beat his missing space sword that he could read her like a book—a book that was half written in a different, feminine language, but the point still stood for itself. He felt touched by her concern, but. . . .

"Not really." He shrugged, then paused. "Though, speaking of Suki, something's been eating at me for the longest time . . .," He could tell he had her attention as her body tensed up the slightest bit. "It's nothing awkward, but . . . when Suki rescued you from the Serpent's Pass, what exactly did you say to her? I asked Suki, but she'd never tell me."

The Water Tribe warrior had meant it as a simple question, but given that Toph's face was nearly red with embarrassment, he could tell that he may have touched a nerve.

"I don't remember," Toph stated; Sokka just rolled his eyes.

"Liar."

"Look, just because I don't feel like reliving the time I almost drowned because a certain _Water _Tribe _Warrior_ couldn't stand getting wet. . .," she snapped.

Sokka blinked, then lowered his head. "Sorry; you're right. Forget I asked." He went back to preparing lunch. "So, what's on the docket for today?"

He could hear the relief in the earthbender's voice that he had dropped his inquiry and perhaps there was a trace of guilt as well, for trying to make him feel bad for something that had happened so long ago and he had long since made up for. "Well, after you're done with your housewife duties, I think we should swing by Hina's room—from what I can tell, she's still home. We can invite her to the party, and then. . ."

"Trail her the minute she leaves her room? I like the sound of that—it's been a while since I got to stalk anyone." Sokka grinned, then flushed when he realized what he had said.

Toph just raised an eyebrow, but nodded. "Yeah, that's the gist of it; Hina is the one we have the least information on, so it's Hina we're starting with." Sokka dumped the contents of the pan onto two plates and carried them over to the couch. The earthbender sensed his approach and sat up; reluctantly, she scooted over enough to allow him to sit. Sokka smirked—had she not let him on, he'd have just eaten on the bed and she knew it. She cautiously sniffed the plate. "What's this?"

"Oh, nothing much—just some sea prunes; I wanted to eat some while they were fresh."

Toph frowned as Sokka helped himself to a bite. "I remember Twinkle Toes telling me to NOT eat this stuff."

"Fine, you can either listen to Aang, a man who refuses to touch meat, about your food preferences, or you can just trust the damn cook and eat the stuff before it gets cold—it tastes like shit when it gets cold. Trust me," He shivered a little at the memory. _I'll never forget you, Constipation of 98 A.S.C. (_A/N: A.S.C.=After Sozin's Comet) "Just ignore the spit and it'll taste fine."

"You spat in my food?" Toph looked caught between dismay and laughing.

"Only one part—just avoid the wet spot and you should be fine. Oh wait, it's all wet. Oh well, guess you'll just have to try your luck, Ms. Lie Spreader."

"Let it go—you'll have plenty of time to deny it during the party," Toph grunted she used the fork Sokka had placed on her plate—he had bought metal ones, so Toph could see the utensils—to stab a prune and put in her mouth; Sokka just shrugged and smirked as Toph twitched a little bit with each bite.

….

**Whew! And there are some suspect eliminated! Who could the culprit(s?) be? Anyway, thanks for reading and good luck figuring it out! Remember, the first person to guess the villain(s?) correctly wins an ATLA or Korra oneshot from me (no Yuri/Yaoi or lemon, but otherwise it's fair game). Anyway, next time we learn interesting things about Hina and get some long overdue stalking in. I'll try to get it out by next Sunday evening! Granted, you've had reason to roll your eyes at that statement but I'm fresh off New Year's resolutions and am on a huge Tokka kick lately, so the inspiration is definitely coming…though this fic seems to pretty much be people talking, doesn't it? *sigh*. Anyway, to help, here's the Saint Bara layout again:**

**Saint Bara: 22 rooms**

**3rd floor: Sokka and Toph, Mrs. Fink, Tiguh (water tribe, massively over due on rent; dragon's appearance makes her desperate rent acceptable), and 3 fire nation colonials work at steam plant.**

**2nd floor: Fi (missing water bender), Kahn (police grunt), Ti (his brother, water bender), Gin (earth nation nonbender, lazy, and over due on rent), Hina (water bender, works at a dress shop)**

**1st floor: Gai (missing earthbender), Ed (moved out, has secret wooden trapdoor for bad guy's), Ji Fuin and his wife, Bu (guy who was checking out when Toph and Sokka arrived and handy man)**

**Basement: Secret wooden room, piping and stuff, and storage space.**

**Read and review please!**


	7. Dragon Spirit of Radio: Hina

**Gasp! An update after only a week or so? Has the world gone mad? Nah, it's more like I'm trying to do shorter chapters and more consistent updates (may as well at least try to keep those New Year's resolutions); I'm on a Tokka kick that's only going to get stronger once Korra season 2 starts and The Search comic (even though Toph isn't in it; ah well, we at least got some good Tokka bonding in The Promise). I hope to keep this updating once every week or two up! Your words encourage me to keep coming back, for those few of you who enjoy everyone's favorite duo this side of Psych! Thanks for your support and enjoy the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the shoes on my feet…wait, scratch that, the credit card company owns those. Well, damn, now I'm really sad.**

…

The day had started off ordinary enough for Hina. First she woke up at 9:00, took her daily twenty minute long shower, and by the time she was waiting for her breakfast to heat up, it was 9:50. After that, she spent ten minutes looking into the mirror, trying to get her wild hog-monkey nest of black hair under control. After fighting with her hair, she often just settled the feud by tying it up in a ponytail and leaving it alone for the rest of the day. By the time 10:30 rolled around, she was ready to actually start her morning, which naturally included going through the bills. She glanced over at the pile of ignored scrolls on the table near her front door and sighed; she hated Bill Day. She briefly wondered if Kahn or Ti were around to hang out with—she could normally count on them for a good distraction, but then shook her head.

"Not this time; this time, I'm going to pay back everything first." _If I can…._ She hadn't had the best luck with money the past two months, which made her a little bit desperate for hours at the shop. Hina glanced over at the time candle and it flickered eleven times. It was 11:00. How did they ever survive without the Mechanist's time candle? It was baffling just how much they depended on it; she was pretty sure that her Water Tribe mother back Yu Dao still just relied on the positions of the sun to tell time, which made her approach to punctuality more along the lines of "whenever it gets done. Hardly the work ethic to teach her impressionable young daughter. The more she thought about it, she realized that was probably the main reason she couldn't stand her neighbor, Gin. The jackass just seemed to scoot through life—he didn't care that his laziness hurt others. Which made her all the more tempted to consider moving to a new building, or at least up a floor; the only things stopping her were her finances and her other neighbors, Kahn and his brother Ti.

She had met the brothers shortly after she had gotten to Republic City; right after she had gotten off the carriage a year ago last week, actually. Once she had stepped out of the carriage, she had almost been run over by a rogue ostrich horse; however, at the last second, Kahn pulled her to safety and they had stuck together ever since. After all, it was a big city; a girl needed friends to back her up, and those two more than fit that bill. She smiled slightly. At first, she didn't believe they were brothers, given how pale Kahn was compared to his tanner younger brother, but she was quickly convinced by how much they argued; if that wasn't a sure sign of relation, what was? She didn't press them too much about their history, just as they didn't press her for hers; the whole point of moving to the city was to start over and asking questions about the past just wasn't polite, not in this section of the city at least. Though, as well as Kahn and Ti got along, she still found it odd that they had separate rooms, though she mostly chalked it up to Ti bringing all those people back at random hours of the day. He was certainly popular for a guy who watered plants for a living; then again, she paused, perhaps it was because he watered plants—maybe girls thought he was the sensitive type and, with his tanned foreigner look, figured he'd be a good lay. That would be annoying, your roommate constantly bringing women back to the room; if that was the case, she could hardly blame the more chaste Kahn for living separate.

A sudden knock on her door shook her from her reverie. She glanced wearily down at the scrolls scattered on her kitchen table; she had barely read half of them and already she was depressed. With a sigh, Hina got up and walked over to the door. She stood on her tip toes and peeked through the peephole on the door that Fuin had installed after the Dragon first struck Mrs. Fink—though, in Hina's mind, the old woman probably had it coming a little bit. She bit her lower lip—every time she thought that, she couldn't help but feel at least the tiniest bit guilty. It wasn't as the accident had been _all_ her fault….

There was another knock on the door. From what Hina could tell from her peek, there was no reason to pretend she wasn't home—it wasn't the debt collectors again. She undid the locks and eased her door open. "How can I help you…Oma and Shu, right?"

The most recent additions to the Saint Bara family looked at each other and flushed a little. "Er, it's _Sou _and _Omai_." The tan man—clearly Water Tribe—corrected. He was wearing a knee-length green cloak that covered most of his body, with his loose black pants leading to brown boots.

"I believe you mean _Omai_ and _Sou_." The pale women glanced up at her…boyfriend? Roommate? Friend with benefits? Hina couldn't quite peg them and it annoyed her. Omai fidgeted a little with her scarf, but otherwise seemed fine in her loose tan shirt and looser pants. Her shoes were kind of odd—they had very thin soles; frankly, if Omai stepped on so much as a pebble, her feet were doomed, but each to their own.

Sou just glared at her. "I thought we agreed my name would go first?"

"But doesn't the more awesome person come first? That'd be me." _Definitely together_, Hina thought. _Either that or their siblings_. The arguing cinched it.

"I'm not doing this right now." Sou pouted and crossed his arms in a decidedly unmanly way while Omai just smirked; she knew she had won. After a steady few seconds of pouting, Sou turned back to Hina, who was just staring at him, eyebrow raised. "I'm sorry about my friend here; she tends to be a little OCD about certain things; why, last night she just couldn't rest until all the spoons were in correct order from biggest to smallest."

Omai glared, her loose, mid-back-length black hair framing her face, but to her credit, didn't miss a beat. "Wait until you see how I organized your panty drawer, Sou—you can finally stop storing your thongs in mine." Sou winced while Hina tried not to laugh; there was something about these two that she could tell she'd like. Still, she knew that if she didn't say anything, they would only keep on bickering—she had had plenty of bicker-referee experience after knowing Kahn and Ti for a year, so she coughed pointedly.

"So…Omai and Sou…what can I do for you? I'm afraid whatever it is, it'll have to be short; I have to go to work in ten minutes." That stopped the argument that was undoubtedly brewing. At least they had the decency to fake looking sorry before Omai nodded.

"It's no problem…Hina, right?" Hina nodded. "Cool. See, idiot? I told you her name was Hina—where the hell did you get Lee from?" Sou lightly smacked her on the back of the head. "Right. Anyway, as you heard last night, my friend and I just moved in and we were hoping to hold a party tomorrow night, a sort of get-to-know-the-neighbors thing, you know? Would you be interested in coming?"

Hina blinked—she hadn't expected that. These people wanted to actually know their neighbors? In the big city? Just how recently had these trusting hicks gotten off the boat? Still, they seemed nice enough… "There will be food there." Sou deadpanned as he noted her hesitation.

_Score_. "Sure, I think I'll be able to come. Though, may I ask you two a question?" They glanced at each other and shrugged; Hina took that as permission to continue. "You seem like nice enough people, so it's only fair that I ask: why would you want to move here? Didn't you hear about this Dragon Spirit thing?"

Sou shrugged sheepishly. "Yeah we did, and since this is our first apartment and Omai here is something of a tightwad—" Omai not so subtly kicked the side of his shin. "I mean, I'm the tightwad. Right. Anyway, we heard about this Dragon thing and couldn't help but think the rates would be cheap. Besides, we moved to the city for adventure—how can we top a Fire Nation Dragon Spirit?"

"Fair enough, but I'd recommend keeping your options open—I wouldn't want you to get hurt, okay?" They nodded, but didn't look nervous at all. Hina just shrugged, _Ah, the old days of naivety; they'll become cynical in no time_. "So long as you understand that, I guess. So tomorrow night for the party then?" Omai nodded. "What room?"

"We're on the third floor, right across the hall from Mrs. Fink and I think…Tiger? Tiguh?" She shrugged. "Whichever. Anyway, she's next to us." Hina tried not to shudder. Tiguh was almost as bad as Gin…still, she looked at their naïve, hopeful stares and knew that she'd cave.

"Okay, I'll definitely come." The candle made its popping noises again. "Well it's 12:30; I better get going. It was nice talking to you and I'll see you tomorrow." With a smile and a wave goodbye, Hina closed the door and sighed. Well, at least she'd get a free meal out of it…though she doubted the party wouldn't go long…not in this building….

…

"Is she moving?" Sokka asked five minutes later as he and Toph sat at the café across from the Saint Bara; they were waiting for Hina to finally start heading to work so they could tail her. Toph just shook her head and Sokka scowled. "Now that's just plain rude—she told us she had to leave right away." He stroked his fake beard. "Wang Fire is displeased by the corruption of young people today."

Toph smacked him lightly on the arm. "Well, 'Wang Fire' can go suck it."

"Why young lady! Such foul language!" Sokka gapped in mock indignity. "Don't make me rise out your mouth with soup. Actually," he sniffed the air suspiciously. "have you taken a shower recently?"

"We're supposed to be going in disguise, Sokka, so I figured that—that I may as well pretend to be clean." Toph looked like she was caught between pouting and flushing; Sokka just laughed.

"I thought your healthy coating of dirt looked thinner than usual." He would've patted her head, but he prized his fingers too much; besides, with her professional-looking hat, he doubted she could've felt it anyway. At the moment, her hair was up in a bun and resting under the hat, and she had glasses that kept sliding down the bridge of her nose. Given that they were going to be following Hina to presumably a place of business, Sokka figured that they should look professional and confident, two things he knew that would make most people let them go about their business without question. Granted, if they did their disguises right—and if there was one thing Sokka prided himself on was his ability to be a master of disguise—there should be no way that anyone could figure them out; Sokka was carrying a _cane _for crying out loud! He was practically invisible.

"Did you see anything in her room while I distracted her with my awesome banter?" Toph asked as she pretended to read the book Sokka had set in her hands.

"You still got a bead on her and talk?"

"I can multitask, jackass, and you know it." Toph snorted and, after groping around the side of the book for a second, turned the page.

"True, true, but we need to get this to work." He did a quick scan of the tables around them. The room was fairly loud and busy and no one walking by stared at them through the wide window, and the employee at the counter was too busy struggling to complete orders while balancing his not giving a damn. "Anyway, while _we _were distracting her with _our _banter, I did manage to at least get a good sweep of her room—at least the stuff she had on display. Apparently, she's not the biggest laundry fan; I think I saw some under things I shouldn't..." He trailed off, caught between feeling ashamed and slightly happy by the sight; Toph merely flushed a little and gestured for him to move on. "She didn't keep too many important things out in the open—actually, her room didn't have much personality to it at all; no posters, no paintings, no plants, no nothing. She did have one of the Mechanist's timer candles though, so we know she's punctual—I'm willing to say that she doesn't let herself get too close to anyone or any place."

"That help or hurt our cause?" Toph raised an eyebrow, cutting through his exposition. Sokka sighed; she just didn't appreciate a good buildup.

"I'd say it helps us; I mean, if the building closed tomorrow, I don't think she'd loss too much sleep over it, and she seems to be behind on bills, if that mountain of scrolls is any indication."

"I thought you said she was current with her rent?"

"Doesn't mean she can't be in debt for other things, like her gym membership or her bar tap, or something." Sokka scowled as he fell silent.

"Her porn collection, maybe?" Sokka met Toph's unseeing gaze and considered her suggestion; finally, they both shrugged.

"I think we're going to keep trying, but that is a good backup." He said, echoing the words from his sister when he guessed that King Bumi's name was "Rocky"—a joke, he now thought, that he'd have to try on Toph; surely she'd be able to appreciate its puniness more than his sister…. "You know, I think that she just might—"

"She's on the street." Toph slammed the book shut and got to her feet. Sokka glanced out the window and saw Hina exiting the Saint Bara and turning to her left to walk down the street. "Let's go Snoozles; I can only keep track of one person for a little while here—too much hustle and bustle."

"Aw, missing the country already?" Sokka chuckled but got to his feet as well.

"You're the hick, Southern Water Tribe commoner." Toph grumbled, but Sokka pretended he couldn't hear her. A minute later, they were out the door and walking down the street.

…

"I don't believe this." Sokka gapped. After following Hina on three bus carriages, losing her twice and getting turned around three times, _this _was the payoff?

"What is it?" Toph asked eagerly. Sokka almost felt envious; she couldn't see the foo-foo, cutesy decorations and the air of sophistication and femininity that the made the building seem far more "seductive" than "evil-Dragon-Spirit-plans-here!"

"It's a…dress store." He sighed. "A popular one, if all these middle age women are any indication. Seriously, Aunt Wu's was less packed than this!" This was not turning the way he had hoped. After all their time disguising themselves and him picking out his perfect beard and cane, the woman turned out to work at a dress store? There was no way in hell that was relevant!

As if sensing his train of thought, Toph sighed, "Well, that sucks. And to think we pushed an old woman off a bus to make sure we caught up with Hina."

"Hey, this is the city; she should've seen it coming. I mean, at her age, isn't walking better for her health anyway?" Sokka scoffed, then paused. "Toph, are we terrible people?"

"Yep, we're going to hell, but we're not going to be walking there, that's for damn sure." Sokka laughed and shrugged.

"Well, the shame my Gran Gran is undoubtedly sending my way right now, we may as well go inside and ask around—we did make that poor woman walk for this cause."

"Fine, but what's our cover story? Should I lower my collar so people can see the betrothal necklace?"

Sokka shook his head. "Nah, we can't have Hina catch wind that it's us and that necklace isn't going away anytime soon. Just follow my lead and let me do most of the talking; I want you focusing on whether they're lying or not."

"I can do that in my sleep, Snoozles." Toph snorted, but gestured for him to lead the way. The Water Tribe warrior took a breath and began to stride confidently into the shop, him stroking his beard thoughtfully. He almost faltered once he walked through the door, though; if the outside was cutesy, then the inside practically made him gag—it was Ty Lee's wet dream—he shivered; _I can't believe I put that thought in my own head_. The nightmares would be plenty retribution for that thought, he was quite confident.

The store room itself wasn't too large; however, there had to be at least ten aisles of dresses and gowns of all shapes, sizes, and colors that Sokka was pretty sure didn't actually exist, yet every aisle had at least fifteen women browsing through their inventory; Sokka could even see a small herd of bored men banded together against the right wall—some may have been tempted to try and lean on the left side of the room, just to mix things up, but that wall seemed to be dedicated to all kinds of sheets of fabric. _From their glazed over expression, I guess they left their souls at the door._

Toph shared similar sentiments, "Looks like those guys lost their balls somewhere."

"They didn't lose them; they just left them in their wives' fabulous handbags."

Toph didn't even dignify that with a response; she just kept marching towards the back of the store, where the clerk was. Sokka kept stride and caught up with ease; though Toph may've grown taller, but his legs were still longer by four inches or so. He gently grabbed her shoulder and turned her towards the rack to their left.

"What do you think of this one?" He asked, using his Wang Fire voice.

Toph sighed and her shoulders slumped, but she reluctantly reached forward and groped the aisle and grabbed the first dress she had a decent grip on. "This the one you mean?" She hissed.

"Doesn't matter, just reject it."

"You're the boss." _Dear Spirits, when this is over, I'm going to get a plaque with her quote on it. And the date. And it will sit right above my fireplace and become my tombstone_. Sokka was interrupted from his plaque dreams when Toph scowled and said, "No way in hell I'm going to the party in _that_; I'd look like a fashion pariah!"

"Okay, okay Song; let's just ask this young man to help us. Hello, sir?" Sokka called to the clerk who was probably old enough to be his father, yet had the glasses and critical eye of a man who knew his fabrics—he certainly looked like the manager type. "Could you please help my friend here? We're going to a party tonight and she doesn't have a thing to wear."

The man looked up from his notebook and glared at one of the female staffers he had carrying a heavy looking box. One of the shorter but stronger ones shivered and set down her box. She quickly made her way over to Toph and Sokka and bowed slightly. "Welcome to the Dancing Dragon—" Sokka and Toph snickered; the girl's eyes narrowed slightly. "My name is Jin; how may I help you today?"

"As I was just informing your boss over there, Ms. Jin, my friend and I have a party to go to tonight for work—office parties, you understand—and she doesn't have anything to wear. She's new and more than a little colorblind, so we thought we'd get an expert's opinion." He trailed off; by the time the first few words were out of his mouth, Jin had started looking at Toph with a critical eye.

"I see…." She gestured for Toph to turn around; Sokka held his breath, but he worried for nothing. It seemed her earthbending senses at least let her see what motion gestures people were doing, and she began to turn on the spot. "I see potential here…."

"Excellent; well, I'll let you girls get to it. I'll just wait over here by the counter; just come to me when you're done, or I'll fetch you if we're running out of time." Sokka smiled and thanked the spirits that his beard obscured it; fortunately, Jin was too much in the zone to notice and Toph was too busy scowling and standing still while Jin poked her body in various places to hit him. He shrugged and leaned against the counter and glanced over at the wall of fabrics. While over the course of their journey to defeat the Fire Lord he had learned enough sowing to make minor repairs to his clothes and armor, he had no idea what separated good fabric from bad fabric, and as far as he was concerned, none of those shiny things deserved the prices being asked; frankly, he'd give Aang's—no, wait; Sokka wanted nieces and nephews—he'd give _Zuko's_ left nut to have even a fraction of just one sheet of fabric.

However, the more he scanned the wall, the more something seemed to stand out to him. He narrowed his eyes and casually wandered over to the fabric that caught his eye. The price tag bragged that it was firmer than most fabrics, but still a flexible enough to be sown or molded into whatever garment you wanted—it reminded Sokka of paper mache and, more importantly, it reminded him of the sheets of material he, Toph, and Fuin had found in that trunk in that hidden room underneath the first floor. He pulled the price tag off the wall and wandered back to the checkout and the silent-but-angry manager behind it.

"Why hello again, my good man!" A grunt in reply. "I was wondering if you'd be so kind as to say what this is?"

"Read the tag." He answered curtly.

"I did, and I'm interested in the material, but I'm afraid that a big sheet is just a little out of my price range. Do you know if anyone else may sell it for a lower price?"

The pale man glared at him and stroked his bread; it was longer than Sokka's fake one and definitely whiter. The Water Tribe warrior sucked in his gut and stood slightly on his tip toes—if this man could beat him in the beard department, at the very least, he'd make himself taller. "No; we're the only shop in the city that carries it. Made somewhere near Gaoling, if you must know."

"I was just curious. I have to have _something_ to keep me interested while the girls are chattering away like hog monkeys." He sighed and set the tag on the counter and resumed leaning against it; however, his mind was already processing the information. The material for the mask had to have come from this shop, and he and Toph figured that the Dragon had to be someone in the building; the only link between the Dancing Dragon and the Saint Bara was Hina—at least, as far he knew so far.

The manager just grunted and went back to counting the money he had in the bin that rested on the counter; whenever people bought something, their money seemed to get tossed into the bin and recorded by the man's diligent records. "I'm Wang Fire, by the way." Sokka held out his hand. The pale man froze and looked at him with a new interest; Sokka's heart quickly leapt into his throat. Had he been found out already?

"Wang Fire? The Fire Nation Wang Fire?" Sokka nodded, and the man smiled. "I've heard of you. My brother was Drill Sergeant in the Fire Nation army and he talked about you all the time." The man frowned. "I thought you were supposed to be dead."

Sokka's heart started pounding. What were the odds that he'd run into the brother of his old Drill Sergeant ? _And a pleasant fuck you too, Universe_. He had tried to forget about the time when he had joined the Fire Nation army while he and the others were traveling in the Fire Nation. He had originally done it to try and learn more about the country, but quickly found himself overwhelmed by latrine duty and those evil cow hippos—he couldn't take any more and fled, only to be cornered by the army. Fortunately, he had come up with the guise that he had been hunting earthbender and waterbender infiltrators and, with the display made by his friends, convinced the Drill Sergeant that he would take them on himself. One faked death later, Sokka hadn't given it another thought. Until now, that is. (**A/N: This story is an actual tale from their time in the Fire Nation; it was chronicled in the epic "Private Wang Fire" comic that was included in the individual Season Three DVD volumes, or you can pick it up in the "Lost Adventures" Avatar comic collection from Dark Horse**.**) **

Sokka did the only thing he could think of: laugh. "I remember the son of a bitch! He made me dig latrines until I collapsed….good times." Noting the man's skeptical glance, he added. "As for the whole, 'how am I alive' thing, if you must know, is a simple matter: when I went to fight those benders, I wasn't sure I'd make it back. It was fierce struggle, but I had distinct advantage. They didn't think that anyone would be crazy enough to try to take them on, you know? Anyway, I'll spare you the gory details, but I have to admit that they beat me; however, I did manage to talk them into taking me hostage versus attacking the rest of the troop—all it took was me mentioning the secret river that that flows to the Fire Lord's palace."

"But that doesn't…"

"Of course it doesn't exist! You know that, I know that, but those idiot benders didn't. Anyway, they took me out of the country, to the rebel base—to this day, I don't know where it was, but it took a long time and far too many bumpy carriage rides, I'll tell you that! Still, I got to meet the leader—a hooded guy, wearing a mask—"

"Wait," the clerk interrupted; he looked tense, though he tried to keep the interested expression of his face. "how can the guy have a hood and a mask?"

"Er, he was very thorough; he didn't want anyone to figure out his identity. Hell, I'm not even sure if it was a man; it could've been a woman in disguise." The clerk raised a skeptical eyebrow. "C'mon, think about it—if you were leading one of the charges against the Fire Nation, would you want to go about with just a hood? Why take the chance? Anyway, I didn't tell them anything, but they didn't like that." He tapped his leg with his cane. "Despite my efforts, I fear that they used the secret river info in their invasion plan. At least that failed, right? For a while, anyway….

After the Fire Lord fell, I got released from prison and was taken to one of the colonies, and with all that Harmony Restoration Movement bull, I decided to stay put and see which way the wind blew. Fortunately, for me, er us, they went with Republic City instead. So I made my way here. How's the old drill sergeant?"

"He got injured in the War, after you left. He's retired on Ember Island." He paused. "He still writes some times; I'll mention you said 'hi.'"

Sokka nodded. "Good, good." He glanced over at the clerk—it seemed that he had gained his confidence with the story; maybe he could get him to talk about Hina. They did go all the way out there; they may as well get some extra information. "You know, you remind of me of your brother—keeping those employees filled with fear."

"Gets stuff done."

"How many employees do you have? Any recent hires, with all these newcomers coming into the city every damn day?"

The man just shrugged. "No, still got the same six person staff as I did a year ago. All those newcomers have lazy work ethic—not like us Fire Nation folk. Fortunately, Jin keeps the Earth Kingdom employees in line, like that Hina."

"Hina?" Sokka asked casually. "She one of your Earth Kingdom employees?"

The man nodded. "Yes, and if she didn't have Fire Nation contacts, I would have tossed her on her ass weeks ago."

Sokka tried to only look mildly interested. _Fire Nation contacts?_ "Why, is she unpunctual?"

"For the past month or so, she's missed a shift or two."

"For shame! Why, you'd think her Fire Nation contacts would teach her better. After all, nothing teaches discipline like a Fire Nation stepfather."

The manager shook his head. "It isn't her stepfather—she's friends with a friend of mine; he and his brother went to school with me in the colonies. I think he lives somewhere in the city, last I heard." He paused. "He doesn't write anymore."

"That's a shame…." Sokka's mind was racing. He glanced over at Toph while she pretended to be interested in whatever Jin was babbling on about. She stiffened and looked in his general direction; she had sensed his heartbeat increase. The Water Tribe warrior watched as his partner talked to Jin and shrugged. Slowly, they made their way back to the counter. "Find anything good?"

Jin scowled. "Unfortunately, I can't find anything to please this…valuable customer. She couldn't see quality colors if they bite her on the…"

"Jin, that's enough." The manager snapped, and turned to Toph, who was smirking. "I'm sorry we couldn't find anything to satisfy you, Miss."

"It's not a problem; maybe next time." Toph shrugged and Sokka nodded.

"Thank you for your help though. And tell the drill sergeant I say hello!" The manager grunted. On that note, Sokka and Toph took their leave of the Dancing Dragon and onto the crowded afternoon streets of Republic City. Once they had walked a few blocks, Sokka glanced down at Toph. "So, was the manager lying?"

Toph shook her head. "Nope. Why? What'd he tell you?"

Sokka sighed. "That's what I was afraid of." He walked over to the bus stop. "C'mon, I'll tell you while we wait; we got a day to plan, after all—tomorrow's when the party starts."

…

**And that's that for this part. Things seem to finally be heading towards something of a climax; who knows? There may even be some action instead of just talking. Anyway, hopefully I will be able to get the next chapter up next Sunday or so; it depends on how intense my course work turns out to be. I will get back to this and feel free to place bets on the villains! Thanks for reading!**

**Read and review!**


	8. Dragon Spirit of Radio: the party

**Wow, another update so soon? Again? How odd…well, again, my Tokka kick will not be denied and I'm having fun with this story, and don't feel like doing homework right this second. The time is right for another chapter! This time there may even be some action in it, versus talking and stalking, but I can't promise anything… Still, I hope you enjoy it!**

**Also, I'm retconning one small detail Sokka and Toph had at the beginning of Wakin' Up in Ba Sing Se; instead of Aang dropping Toph and her just disappearing for three years to recruit, I'm incorporating The Promise volume 2.**

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except this stuffed bunny rabbit…wait, no Cujo!...well, back to square one.**

…

"So…let me get this straight. Again. Hina is our crook?" Toph asked as Sokka moved the bowl of sea prunes onto the table by the sofa, but by the direction his head was facing, he was probably contemplating moving it back to the kitchen counter. "Oh, for spirits' sake, it's fine there! You've been moving the damn thing back and forth for five minutes; no one's going to care if they have to walk two feet more to eat your sea prunes."

"But it has to be perfect!" Sokka insisted. "It's our party—what if no one eats anything and the food just goes bad? We don't have enough storage space for this many leftovers!"

Toph paused and then sighed. She was tempted not to dignify that with an answer, but…. "You are such a girl, you know that? Remember the reason we're even doing this? Catch a bad guy? Get better rent? Save the city?" She hated it when he got so worked up, caring about what other people thought; granted, he didn't do it as often as say, his sister or Twinkle Toes, but still. Granted, she understood that sometimes it was necessary, but that didn't make it any less annoying. _Fortunately, at least _one_ of us can stay on ask_.

She didn't have to see to know that Sokka winced; it was all in the sound of his voice, "Fine, fine; you're right, Toph. You always are." _Damn right_, she thought, but she decided to spare him her agreement; the fact he was admitting showed he had already learned. "It's just that…we need this to go well; it's probably our last shot at Hina for a while; besides, we need to catch her before the Dragon strikes again, you know?"

"Fine, whatever—I'll excuse your little tantrum if you just tell me what makes you think Hina's involved?" Toph said, her arms crossed. _Dear spirits, I hope I don't seem like Katara_.

"Simple: one, the material for the Dragon's mask could only have come from her shop, two, she has been missing a few shifts since the Dragon appeared, which suggests she's planning something soon, and three, the manager said that she had Fire Nation contacts, which would explain her borrowing from Fire Nation lore."

"But I thought we agreed that the Fire Nation isn't involved? After all, they're trying to be accepted by the rest of the world again, right?"

"Yeah, but she's Earth Kingdom—that may be her point; for all we know, she could be betraying her friend and getting rid of the Fire Nation one step at a time." Toph shrugged; they didn't have enough information yet. "Plus…I just want it to be her, so we can move on to something else and I can actually get some sleep versus starring at the corner all night, waiting for something to pop out at me."

_Ah, there's the Sokka we know and love…er, tolerate; I meant tolerate_. Toph thought. She got the feeling of being stared at. "Yes, Sokka? What's wrong now, the crab puffs aren't facing the West at a ninety degree angle? Relax."

"No, that isn't it." He paused. "Just wait a second." He walked off into their—her—room. She could hear the rustling as he went through one of their bags. _What's he up to_? Her question was answered when he came back out a minute later with, judging from the clinking and rustling sound, a bag of bottles. There was a slight _clunk_ sound as he set them down on the counter. "Just hold still and trust me, okay?"

"What're you do—" She was cut off when she felt a light brush stroke on her eyelid. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" She thundered as she tried to push him away. She didn't have to see to tell he was embarrassed.

"Well, we're having a party and you're a girl, so…I figured you'd probably need makeup. Katara suggested it, actually!" He added quickly; though he could tell right away that he wasn't helping himself at all.

"WHAT? Sokka, that's the stupidest thing you've ever said!"

"Look, no one else knows that you're blind, okay? Everyone thinks you're awesome, but that you're also just a regular girl—woman…you know what I mean—and regular girls use makeup." He argued. Toph's eyebrows clenched and she gave him her fiercest scowl; Sokka didn't back down. _Not even a whimper? Must be losing it_. Or it could just have been whatever paint or gunk or shit he put on her took away from the effect. Granted, he did raise a point, but that didn't make him right. She had already spent years pretending to be the pretty little rich girl for her parents; that one time with Katara aside, she never wanted to deal with that fake stuff ever again…it made her look like a clown.

She heard Sokka sigh. "Look, I get it, okay? You've already pretended to be somebody else for so long with your parents; I should've thought of that before I asked you to tag along, and I'm sorry for that. But just because you're Omai doesn't mean you can't be Toph, right? Look, I'll just add a little, just enough for people to notice, but no more, okay? It'll be gone before you know it."

Toph paused. His words seemed heartfelt, but she was still reluctant. _Clown_.

Sokka's tone softened a little, "Don't worry; no one will make fun of you, even if other girls tend to be total bitches. They wouldn't dare, because I'd kick their asses long before you'd get a chance." She could hear the smile in his tone and was tempted to smile as well; but as touched as she was by the gesture, she was also annoyed. He may've understood (Katara must've told him about their girls day thing), but there he was, blaming himself again—what, did he think she didn't understand the requirements when she agreed to the job? Spirits, how arrogant—she could suck it up and take one for the team and Sokka's annoying attempts to be the martyr be damned.

"Fine Snoozles, you…have a point."

"Would it kill you to say 'gee Sokka, you're so right and I'm wrong.'" He asked in a high, squeaky voice that Toph suspected was his attempt at sounding female.

"Yes, it just might and if you had any balls, I'd kick them up to your chin." She crossed her arms. "Just get it over with." She tried not to roll her eyes when she felt the brush against her left eyelid—she had been practicing ever since Sokka's attempt to save her metalbending academy (after the Yu Dao incident, they hadn't really seen much of each other), though after being stuck with him for the past few weeks, she was practically a master. Though she had to admit, she was the tinniest bit impressed with how delicate Sokka was manipulating the brush. "You really don't have any balls, do you?"

She could hear the groan in Sokka's voice. "Hey, I'm dating a Kyoshi Warrior—makeup comes up…a lot." She snickered—she had heard the tale of Sokka the she male Kyoshi Warrior from Aang. "Shut up."

"What? I'm not—mmmmf!" She had to force her mouth shut as Sokka moved to her mouth. Instead, she just settled for cocking her eyebrow and looking bemused—she knew he hated that. A few seconds later, she felt the brush leave.

"There, done. Was that so bad?"

Toph shrugged as she headed to the room. "Hey, I don't mind looking girly; I just like giving you a hard time." She would've done her usual punch-to-the-arm, but he was out of reach; instead, she mentally promised a double punch for next time and went about dressing for the guests.

…

"Hello Mrs. Fink! So glad you could make it." Toph heard Sokka force out behind teeth that were surely clenched and hid her smirk. She figured that Mrs. Fink was giving him an odd look after all the fake things Toph told her.

Sure enough, Mrs. Fink just snorted. "Please—I had to interrupt your hanky panky and sin at some time—it's my duty as the older one to guide you back to the path of normalcy." She brushed past Sokka. "Hello dear; I trust you've kept him in line and kept him out of your things?"

Toph found herself caught between laughing and asking Mrs. Fink whether she meant physically or the clothes, but decided to spare Sokka the humiliation—and Mrs. Fink the heart attack. "He's behaving…though you do know I was kidding about that story, right? It was just a joke. He and his sister hate each other, I swear."

There, that hopefully put a lid on that for a while. Besides, there were already other guests there; from what she could tell with her bending, Gin was on the couch, sipping some of the cactus juice Sokka had smuggled in. Meanwhile, Tiguh was leaning on the kitchen counter, taking a break from binging and, Toph suspected, smuggling crab puffs into her robe, to face the door; she had noticed Mrs. Fink's arrival.

"I'm sorry, but Ao and his brothers wanted me to tell you that they had work this evening, so they won't be able to make it." Mrs. Fink added after glaring at Sokka for a few seconds—at least, that's what Toph guessed she had been doing; the way her heart was beating, Toph suspected that Mrs. Fink was still mad. _Oh well, I did all I could_, she thought as she punched Sokka in the ribs, much to Tiguh's amusement, if the snort that came from her general direction was any indication; thus far, only Hina, Kahn, and Ti were missing—that didn't give Toph a good feeling, especially after Sokka had told her about Hina's supposed connection to the Spirit. She knew that Sokka was probably thinking it out now; unfortunately, it wasn't the time.

"Dude, stop just standing in the doorway and come talk to the guests." Sokka groaned a little, but shut up after Toph gave him another quick punch in the back. _There; all squared up_. He walked over by Gin and sat down on the couch. Toph wandered over and sat down next to Tiguh; Mrs. Fink noticed this and decided to join the girl side of the room. A silence fell.

"Well…this is awkward." Gin remarked dryly. "Couldn't you have at least gotten a musician or something? If you can't commit to throwing a decent party, how can you commit to a decent relationship?"

"Those two aren't related and you know it, you ass; trying to sound philosophical only makes your idiocy more apparent—you know that, right?" Tiguh called over; Gin pretended to ignore her.

"Well, we manage somehow."

"Oh, so it's one of those open relationships I keep hearing about." Gin sounded bemused. _Does that guy ever hear a word we say?_ "Why the hell would you do that? Wouldn't that living together be expensive than just going down to the Red district and hiring…." A loud _thunk_ silence him; Toph figured Tiguh had thrown something at him.

Sure enough. "Shut up! There's an old woman here! Do you want to give her a heart attack?"

The old woman sighed. "It's alright, young one—I too, once lived vicariously through romps of sex." Everyone else in the room gagged at the mental picture _that_ inspired. "You'll either grow out of it or wake up to find yourself knocked up and married to a hobo in a dumpster in Ba Sing Se." She paused and touched the ring on her right hand. "I still miss Robi to this day."

Silence.

"Is that really how you met your husband?" Toph asked carefully, trying to ignore the similarities to her Ba Sing Se experience. _There must've been alcohol _involved.

"Oh yes; didn't I tell you I met him in Ba Sing Se? Anyway, dear Gin, just get out while the getting's good—do you want to be a bum all your life? At this rate, you're bound to catch something, so be careful."

"Mrs. Fink, I'm always careful…." Suddenly, Toph heard Gin begin to gag.

"How can you already have an STD, you scumbag?" Tiguh yelled while Sokka hopped off the couch. "What was her name?"

"Cr-crab-pu-puff…caught…in….throat…." He rasped out. Toph sighed and walked over. With a swift punch to the gut, Gin collapsed and hacked up the crab puff…along with everything else he had eaten or drunk (which, from the smell of it, was quite a bit, the cheap bastard). She heard Sokka made a noise of disgust and smiled—she knew who was going to clean it up. Triumphant, she walked back to Mrs. Fink and Tiguh.

"Good work, Omai." Mrs. Fink said, approval in her voice while Tiguh just clapped—however, Toph noticed something. Tiguh's heart rate was slightly off—she was still hiding something. But what was it? No one had brought up the Dragon or her rate or anything. Toph glanced back over in Gin's direction—Sokka had gone over to get the cleaning supplies. Had she actually been worried about Gin? _I'll figure this out later_."Now avoid men like Gin; you wouldn't want to catch something."

"I…told you it…was…a crab puff!" Gin snapped.

"All men are scum, Omai." Tiguh said sagely, then turned back to Gin. "What, is Crab Puff the name of your stripper! Be honest!" There was her heartbeat again. _She's lying_.

"Hey!" Sokka protested; Toph felt Gin shrug in acceptance and she heard Mrs. Fink chuckle. Thank Spirits that Landlord Fuin wasn't around to hear this—he'd probably fire them, for all the detective work they were doing; granted, it was hard to detect when their prime suspect wasn't even there.

As if by divine providence, there was a knock on the door. "I'll get it!" Sokka called as he leaped to his feet and jogged to the door. He paused there for a second, then Toph heard the click of their door being unlocked. From what Toph could tell, there were two people standing at the door; one was— "Hina!" Sokka said. "Hi! Glad you could make it." Well, that made the evening slightly better and hopefully more productive. "Who's your friend?" Sokka asked Hina.

"Hey man, I'm Bu. I used to live here, but I moved out a week ago; used to help fix the pipes 'round here." The bigger man, Bu, replied. As they walked in, Toph tried to keep her face from furrowing in thought—Bu's heartbeat felt familiar. If he only used to live here, why was he coming to their party?

"I think I remember you…" She could picture Sokka stroking his chin. One of these days, she'd figure out just what it was about facial hair that captivated him so. "I remember now! You were the guy who was checking out when we got here!" _That _was it! At least it'd stop bugging her now.

"I guess you look a little familiar…" Bu replied in an equally thoughtful tone, as if he were trying to remember them. "Sorry, but I'm terrible with faces."

"It's no problem; how about you both take a seat over by the kitchen while I clean up the…accident?" Sokka's tone clearly said "don't ask."

"Oh! I can help you with that." Hina said cheerfully. She walked over to the mess and with a familiar flick of her wrist, the smell began to recede and Toph made out a slight whooshing sound. "I managed to get the smelly stuff out of there, but you'll have to take care of the meaty bits—are those sea prunes I see?" Toph wasn't sure if she was talking about the ones in the bowl or the ones on the floor by Gin's feet, but much more importantly—Hina must be a waterbender. Toph had spent enough time fighting Katara to recognize those signs.

"Oh sure, help yourself; they're right there in—wait, you're a waterbender?" Sokka began to answer but interrupted himself once Hina's actions caught up with him—that, or he noticed the water floating in the air. Subtly was not often his forte; Toph resisted smacking him, but settled for a face palm instead.

"You'll find yourself doing that often." Mrs. Fink said helpfully, no doubt noticing the red mark on her forehead. _Lady, you have _no _idea_.

"Oh yeah, you guys wouldn't know. You're new; yeah, I'm a waterbender."

"Huh; I thought you were Earth Kingdom." Sokka shrugged; Hina's heartbeat suggested she was more than a little annoyed.

"I am. On my mother's side, but my dad was one from the Water Tribe." Toph could tell she wasn't lying, and smirked. They certainly were getting somewhere.

"Er, right. That's interesting!" Sokka tried to sound casual, but he could clearly tell he committed a social taboo. Hina must not have been subtle, as Toph heard him apologize. "Sorry if I offended you."

"It's nothing—I just don't like anyone asking about my past; the same with everyone else here. We came to the city to start over, right? So why let it bother us?"

"Just because you moved to a new place doesn't mean you can just leave your baggage behind." Sokka countered lightly, but Toph could tell that Hina had struck a nerve. "Important things get forgotten that way." Ah, right…his dad; Toph had forgotten about his daddy complex. Still, it seemed the two had made things awkward enough—time for an intervention.

"I'm sorry about Sou—ignore him. That's what I do and I get along okay." Toph wandered over and gave Hina a hug. "Thanks for helping with cleanup. Just take a seat and Sou will get you some food—won't you, Sou?" She glanced in his general direction and nodded. She just heard him sigh and begin to walk over by Tiguh. "So where are…Tea and Crumpets?"

"…do you mean 'Ti' and 'Kahn'?" Hina asked. _Dammit_.

"Right, those guys!" She chuckled. "I'm bad with names! Sorry." She felt Hina wave her off.

"It's okay; those two couldn't make it because they had to deal with an emergency at work. Or something. They were kinda vague about it, right Bu?" Judging by the way Hina's tone, she was annoyed—perhaps the brothers were normally more communicative? It was difficult to read, but the earthbender felt a familiar pattern in Hina's heartbeat; Toph almost sighed. _She probably likes one of them…Spirits, can't we just get away from all this romantic crap? If we wanted to deal with that, we'd have stayed with Aang and Katara._

Bu shrugged. "I guess so; didn't seem too odd to me." He helped himself to a sea prune. A silence fell on the room, save for the sound of Bu's happy munching. Even Gin was quiet, but then, his throat was probably too raw from stomach acid to say much. Small blessings.

"So…how long have you guys been in the city?" Sokka asked, placing himself by Toph.

"Oh, let's talk about that yet—that's boring stuff." Mrs. Fink yawned. "We want to hear the story of how you two met." From the slump of Sokka's shoulders, Toph was willing to bet everyone seemed a little too interested.

"Yeah!" Hina clapped. "Those are the best stories!"

"Ah, no, we don't want to talk about us; we threw this so we could get to know you guys better, remember?" Sokka chuckled, playing it light.

"Well, that's a two way street, you know." Tiguh went back to resting her head on her palm. "That's odd; most couples gush over this part." A fair point. They were getting too off topic from the important stuff. She judged from the big breath Sokka just took, he was about to retort.

"Look, how about this?" She cut him off. "Let's play a game—winner for each round can ask everyone else a question."

"W-what is this, summer camp?" Gin coughed. _Oh, go choke on a crab puff_. Fortunately, everyone else seemed more agreeable.

"Sounds fair." Bu said. The others agreed and soon, the party goers found themselves sitting in a circle on the floor.

"Damn, this is cold!" Gin complained. "You'd think that cheap bastard Fuin would chip in for rugs or something." He glanced over at Tiguh. "Aren't you cold? All you got on is that short dress thing."

"That's okay; my hot ass counters the cold." Toph heard Sokka laugh and she gave Tiguh an approving nod—she knew there was a reason she had liked this girl.

"If you're that worried, just complain to Fuin when he gets back from the theatre." Sokka said.

"So Fuin isn't here?" Hina asked.

"What a relief." Gin sighed. "Wouldn't want that bastard's luck to rub off on us." He leaned closer into the circle. "Rumor has it that he beat up a Fire Nation colonial and that's why the Dragon is haunting us."

"Seriously?" Sokka asked. "He beat a Fire Nation man?"

"Well…we wouldn't go that far, but…he did get rough with a guy not too long ago; we just assumed he was a Fire Nation guy, since those are the only people Fuin seems to hate." Tiguh answered.

"Yeah, but he seems like a better business guy than that—why else would he rent to Ao and all them?" Toph asked.

Tiguh just shrugged. "If you say so; but enough with the depressing stuff, let's just play the game already!"

"Okay then, I'm going to roll these stone dice and you guys call even or odd—if you guess wrong, then you have to answer a question." Toph smirked; she loved this game. And to think Katara said scamming people wouldn't teach them anything good.

Sure enough, on the first roll, she and Sokka got off scottfree; unfortunately, Gin, Tiguh, and Bu didn't get so lucky.

"Well then, let's see: Gin, do you dye your hair?"

"What are we, seven?" Gin scowled; Tiguh just punched him in the arm.

"Just answer the question: does your curtain match your drapes?" Toph thought she heard Mrs. Fink gasp.

"…no, I don't dye my hair."

"Seriously? It's practically yellow…you expect us to believe that's natural?" Sokka asked; that was almost as odd as the _bear_. Gin just said nothing and sulked and murmured about "how much crap this hairdo gets me." "…moving on then," Sokka continued. "Tiguh, what do you do for a living?"

Tiguh paused. "I don't think you need to know that." Now it was Gin's turn to smack her on the arm. "I'll do it, geez! Well, if you must know…I'm an artist."

"Really." Gin deadpanned. "You expect me to believe _that_?" All Toph heard was a crunching noise and Gin was shut up.

"Yes _'really'_, jackass. But my paintings haven't been selling the best for the past year, so I'm a little behind on the rent…." Everyone else who couldn't read her heartbeat must have been giving her skeptical looks, because she quickly added. "But I sold one to someone from an upcoming business for a boatload of gold! It's going to hang in their lobby and everything! I can prove it." Everyone looked away, while Tiguh just muttered. "At least Fuin believed me." _And we have our answer as to why she didn't get kicked out…_ Well, that means they were down a suspect. Toph made sure to throw an encouraging thumbs-up in Tiguh's direction and mouthed "I believe you."

"Anyway, Bu…how long have you lived here?" Sokka asked, bored of taunting someone else's artistic talent.

The larger man shrugged, "I guess I've lived here for three years."

"Where you living now?" Toph asked.

"Isn't that another question?" He asked.

"That's right, Omai—you have to play by the rules." Sokka chuckled and patted her back. _Go to hell_. While she did have patience, she could feel they were getting close to something. But what, she wasn't sure. Sokka rolled the dice again and she made sure to call odd to Sokka's even. With a subtle flick of her wrist, she knew the dice had landed odd. She made sure to smirk in Sokka's direction while he sighed. Along him were Hina and Bu—Toph quietly suspected that Mrs. Fink had fallen asleep and just wasn't playing anymore.

"Okay Sou…" Tiguh began. "how did you meet the lovely Omai here?" Toph flushed a little—as far as she could tell, Tiguh wasn't lying—though she was curious as to which version of the tale Sokka was planning on telling this time.

"It's a long story, but basically a friend of mine had a project he was working on and needed to find engineers of a sort to help him out. He recruited one of my sisters, but he also had to drag a jerk I knew from…school into it—though he didn't turn out to be so bad; I guess he matured or something...or maybe it was his new haircut…but he went through so many…" He could sense the others' impatience, because he moved on. "Anyway, he also hunted down this grenade here and recruited her."

She made sure to punch him on the arm. _Ha! Who's the grenade now…oh_. "After that, we got to hang out a bit; granted, she didn't like me much to begin with—you know how it is—, but I won her over eventually. Things just clicked you know? After the project finished, she stuck around and helped me out of a dark place—that's when I knew."

"Knew what?" Mrs. Fink asked, trying to coax the more mushy parts of the tale out of him. _Guess she was awake after all_. However, Sokka's heartbeat was a little irregular—maybe it was just the mixture of lies and truths he put into the story. _But which parts are the lies_, she couldn't help but wonder as she played with her scarf.

"Knew that she was the one for me. Of course, her father didn't like me, but you know what? I said 'screw that' and proposed anyway—and yes, the proposal story is a different question." He cut Hina off before she could ask. "Anyway, so we ran off to Republic City to start over and save up for an actual wedding or something."

"Aw…," Tiguh sighed happily. For such a hardass, she was surprisingly romantic. "I find your answer satisfactory, Sou."

"Yeah, isn't he great—anyway, it's my turn to ask!" Toph jumped in. "So Hina…what do you think is the reason for this Dragon thing showing up?"

Hina didn't reply right away; her heartbeat had increased though. Was she frightened of something? Feeling guilty? Why did it have to be so damn hard to tell the difference? Finally, she began, "Assuming a Dragon exists—which they don't—it probably wouldn't be hanging out around here just to scare people…I'd say that it's because Fuin beat up that Fire Nation guy." _Lie_.

"But what about those three Fire Nation colonials?" Sokka asked. "Fuin hasn't kicked them out."

"But they aren't from the actual Fire Nation, you know? Just the colonies—the guy Fuin beat up was." _True…kinda_. Toph's brow furrowed in thought. What did this mean? However, before she could give it much thought, the dice began to shake.

"How could you tell he was from the actual Fire Nation versus the colonies? Was it someone you knew?" Sokka pressed. Toph winced—the rumbling was getting worse. _How the hell can they not hear it?_ She reached over an pulled on his sleeve.

"Sou…"

"Just a minute, Omai." Sokka shushed her. She just pinched him. "Ow! What was that for?"

"Something's coming…" she whispered, but by this time, the rumbling had gotten loud enough for everyone else to notice.

"What the hell is that?" Gin asked as he got to his feet. Everyone hopped up and got to the corners of the room not a second too soon. Toph gapped—in the few seconds it took everyone to get up and out of the way, a hole had been made in their floor—someone was earthbending. From what she could tell, someone just launched themselves up through the hole and had landed on their floor. An odd smell started to make her sinuses hurt. At least they had a heartbeat—a strong one. And it was angry.

"Leave Hina alone!" It howled in an unearthly voice. She felt Sokka began to put himself between him and whoever it was.

"Well, at least we've found our Dragon." Sokka said. He didn't get to say much else before the Dragon charged them.

…

**And…a cliffy! Finally, something besides talking is happening, even if that's mostly what happened this chapter. How can Toph and Sokka deal with this thing without giving themselves away? Who is the mysterious Dragon and its connection to Hina? Why am I asking you these questions? I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I will try to get the next one up by next Sunday…we'll see; my class schedule suggests that I should prioritize a little more. BUT I WILL GET THE NEXT PART UP SOON, one way or the other. Feel free to guess the who the bad guys are; as for their motivations, well that's a secret for now….**

**Please read and review!**


	9. Dragon Spirit of Radio: Sokka vs Dragon

Yes,** I'm updating sooner than anticipated (don't get used to it, unfortunately), and we finally have some action! Which turned out to be a little darker than I thought . . . It's a bit of a changeup for this series, so please let me know how the fighting turned out and where it could be improved. I'll just keep this short (and there was much rejoicing) and leave it at that for now. **

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except a secret gum stash that my dentist would probably frown at.**

. . .

Sokka hated parties.

He hadn't always, mind you—no, it had been nice whenever Katara and Gran Gran would celebrate his birthday and that one time with Yue at the Northern Water Tribe had been fun. Even Aang's secret dance party had been enjoyable, even if he had just spent the time watching Aang and his sister flirt (fortunately, thanks to Responsible Chaperone Wang Fire, no hanky panky happened—no one argues with Wang's beard, _nobody_.); at least the music had been decent. He had long ago come to the conclusion that he just couldn't be trusted to plan parties—a plan to take out a giant drill? No problem. A plan to defeat an army of airships? Done it. Plan a party? That's where the good old Sokka truly shown (to this day, he's convinced Aunt Wu cursed him, the lying old witch). Only his parties could be so awkward, puke riddled, and have a fucking monster come crashing through the floor.

Granted, that last one had been kinda the point of the party, but _still_ . . . there was no way in hell they were getting their deposit back. Damn it.

He shook his head and focused on the tall behemoth before him. It—or he; it definitely made Sokka think it was male, maybe it was the voice, or the fact that it was as muscular as the Boulder—hadn't said anything and frankly, there was no way this guy was actually a dragon, but the mask proved that the son of a bitch was crazy as one; the power of stuff was frightening. The ornate horns, the unblinking, intense gaze—the nostrils were even smoking a little. Frankly, had he not been busying pretending the small trickle of moisture running down his leg was sweat, he could've been quite taken with the craftsmanship.

"Sokka?" Toph murmured. "What's the plan?" Before he could respond, the lights shorted out and the room was plunged into darkness. Naturally, this didn't make a difference to Toph, but still. Before he could respond or even get his mental gears going, the Dragon charged at him, moving faster than Sokka would've guessed for a guy that size.

"Get do—!" He grunted as he shoved her aside just as the Dragon landed a solid blow on Sokka's chest. He gagged and slammed into the wall behind him. _Son . . . sonofa bitch, that hurt. . ._, he thought, dazed. He could swear he heard Toph call his name. He glanced up and noticed the Dragon begin to lumber over towards Toph; from what he could see from the moonlight, Toph looked pissed. _Toph_. He struggled to get to his feet. She couldn't use her earthbending, it'd give them away and without it . . .! Dammit, this part was his job! To protect everyone.

"G-get everyone out, Tiguh!" He rasped; he didn't even notice if anyone else was still in the room and he didn't care; at that moment, all he was focusing on was seizing the man up. He narrowed his eyes. Was that a slight limp he saw? Perhaps from when he had a hit and run with Mrs. Fink? _Whatever_. Sokka didn't say anything; he just groped around the floor for the nearest thing he could grab—a leg from the remains of their coffee table—and began to move.

The Dragon didn't notice him; instead, he just reached for Toph, who had begun to shrink back, her teeth clenched in frustration; unfortunately, she underestimated his reach and he picked her up, his hands closed around her throat. "Leave. Hina. Alone. She's marked by the Fire Nation; she's under our protection."

"I'm what?" Hina murmured. From what Sokka could tell, she was near the doorway; she seemed genuinely shaken. But this wasn't the time for that; fortunately, the Dragon was too busy focusing on his monologue to Toph to notice him sneaking up behind him.

"Leave this building." The Dragon growled as he raised his arms, as if to throw Toph against the wall."Leave Fuin to his—" Sokka acted quickly; he ran the last few steps and rammed the table leg behind the Dragon's knee, right where his limp was. The Dragon stopped in midsentence and howled; unfortunately, Sokka didn't have time to celebrate, as he threw himself to the side while the Dragon stumbled backwards and began to collapse, his arms flailing. Sokka steadied himself and instinctively dove to where Toph was landing. Fortunately, he managed to grab her before she landed on stone ground.

He carried her behind the kitchen counter. "F-Fuck you, you bas. . .tard." She rasped, a look of pure fury on her face; Sokka shivered a bit at the sight, though he understood her rage just fine. She got to her feet and took a stance, but Sokka put a hand on her shoulder. "Not yet, Toph." Briefly, she directed her anger towards him and it took all of his strength not to whimper. "We can't blow our cover. Yet. You'll get your chance." He got to his feet and took a deep breath. "Leave this guy to me and get out as soon as you see the chance. I need you to look after Hina; do you hear me, Toph?" She reluctantly nodded, but the murder didn't leave her eyes. Sokka nodded and wisely figured that was the best he could hope for. He took a breath and tried to calm himself. In his mind's eye, he could picture his space sword. _The sword is an extension of yourself_ . . .

"Yo-you little heathen! How dare you harm a spirit of my caliber? Do you want me to send Koh on you?" Sokka opened his eyes and looked in the Dragon's general direction.

"Cut the shit; I happen to know some spirits and, you sir, are no spirit." Sokka snapped emotionlessly. He walked out behind the counter, table leg in hand, and put himself face to face with the Dragon, who was glaring down at him. "Now then, let's see how long a 'dragon' can last."

The Dragon roared and lunged at Sokka, who dove aside again. "You're slow, you know that?" _Compared to Piandao, anyway_. The Dragon didn't bother responding; Sokka figured that it/he had finally figured out that Soka wasn't going to be scared away by words and masks alone and was a little unsure of how to proceed. He dodged another lunge with contemptuous ease. After Azula and Combustion Man, it took a lot more to scare him than that . . . creepy puppets aside; those didn't count. Nor did being snuck up on count; the point was that nothing frightened Sokka except puppets, the new moon, sneak attacks, Azula . . .

He shook his head—his mind shouldn't be wandering now. Fortunately for him, the Dragon didn't seem to be trying that hard. He was swinging punches, but he seemed to lack the training or experience to make them effectively; Sokka had seen better brawlers in bars. _He could be holding back _. . ., he thought as he dodged another punch, while he kept the table leg held at the ready. After another punch nearly grazed his head, he shifted his weight and swung the leg, hitting the Dragon's elbow. Toph must have heard the crack and Sokka heard her run to the door, hesitating slightly at the doorway, before continuing down the hall.

The Dragon howled in pain again—Sokka was getting really tired of that noise. Clearly, this guy was more in the ways of scare tactics than actual fighting . . . Sokka's foot slipped a bit over edge of the hole left in the floor from the Dragon's entrance. _Shit!_ The Dragon noticed him falter as Sokka tried to readjust his balance and the Dragon punched him in the stomach, which sent him over the hole. Fortunately, he landed on the stone floor. Unfortunately, he landed on the _stone _floor. He tried to get up, but the wind was knocked out of him, along with what he was sure was two of his ribs. _Again?_ Had the Dragon been luring him towards there? Sokka shook his head in an attempt to clear it, but he couldn't quiet the stupid ringing bells. The Dragon leapt towards him, his booted feet just barely missing Sokka's leg. Sokka's instincts kicked in and he rolled away and got to his feet.

Sokka managed to get enough of a stance to raise the table leg to block another of the Dragon's punches. He spat on the ground and privately hoped it wasn't blood. "What's the matter? No firebending? I thought you were a Dragon."

"You are unworthy of being killed by the sacred art of fire," The Dragon grunted as he struggled to find an opening in Sokka's defense.

The Water Tribe warrior swatted away another punch. "Really? I think I know a crap ton of firebenders that would disagree. The War? Remember? Good times."

"Th-those _were_ good times, but then the Avatar ruined everything . . . !" He faltered.

Sokka's eyes narrowed. "Please, Dragon; where's the passion? That sounded forced, even though that stupid mask of yours." The Dragon fell silent and raised his arm; Sokka prepared himself for another punch."You know what I think? I think you don't give a damn about the Fire Nation—actually, I think you hate it." Sokka slowly got to his feet. "You can't bend; all you are is a sad man hiding behind a mask-" Suddenly, the wind was knocked out of him-the son of a bitch had kicked him. Cursing himself for lowering his guard, Sokka bent over and forced himself to look up.

The Dragon leapt towards Sokka and an onslaught of fists rained down on him. Sokka managed to keep up with most of the attacks, but the moonlight didn't make for the best vision; he let one slip through and it slammed into his right shoulder. Sokka hissed and jumped back; however, he almost slipped on the spilt sea prunes. With his guard lowered, the Dragon again kicked forward and his foot slammed into Sokka's left thigh. Sokka grunted as he fell onto his back. _At least it's on drier ground._ The Dragon slipped into a stance and _the water from the sea prunes was lifted into the air_.

"You're a waterbender?" Sokka gapped. The Dragon didn't reply again; it appeared the time for banter had passed. With a sweep of his left arm, the water drops turned into ice shards, which he launched at Sokka. The Water Tribe warrior threw himself to his right and landed on his injured shoulder. "Fuck!" He hissed, but he heard the ice shatter on the stone wall. Ignoring his pain, he rolled onto his feet and charged the Dragon—the most important thing when fighting a bender, he knew, was to prevent them from getting into a stance, by any means necessary. He hurled himself at the Dragon, who ducked to the side and punched Sokka 's left side. Sokka bit his lip and skidded to a quick stop; with a pivot, he kicked the Dragon in the groin.

The Dragon hissed and stumbled; had Sokka not been too busy repressing his pain, he would've smirked. Instead, he ran after the Dragon and kicked him behind his injured knee; while the Dragon began to fall to the ground, Sokka raised the table leg and brought it down on the Dragon's mask with all his might. A loud _crack _resounded throughout the apartment. Sokka didn't stop there, though; he moved towards the Dragon's right hand—he needed to. . . .

It was too late.

Sokka noticed the water on the ground too late and he watched the Dragon's hand tighten. He could feel the water engulf his feet and free. "Shit!" The Dragon got to his feet and, with one hand on his cracked mask, he began to walk towards Sokka. _Shitshitshitshit_. He remembered when Katara had done this to him, but he didn't have his trusty boomerang to chip him out, nor did he have the time. He did the only thing he could do: he bent his knees and held his table leg before him. Hopefully, he would be able to block whatever strike came. Sokka squinted, trying to see through the mask's cracks at the face beneath, but he had no luck—the moonlight was nearly bright enough, though he did see the glint of an eye.

The Dragon walked up before him and stopped. He raised a hand and slapped Sokka across the face with the back of his fist. Sokka was thrown towards the right and he felt one of his ankles twist—the left one, he distantly thought—from their trapped position in the ice. This time, he screamed in pain. His eyes blurred and he distantly heard the front door slam open. Now he was stuck leaning at an awkward angle, his head only a foot from the floor; he wasn't facing the door, but he could figure the Dragon was distracted by the intruder and, with the last of his focus, he lifted the table leg and hurled it at the Dragon's head. There was another loud _crack_ and the mask fell apart.

The Dragon ran behind the kitchen counter and ducked out of sight. Sokka heard some faint footsteps and he felt two small hands wrap around him. "Sokka . . . ." He heard Toph say; even if she couldn't see, she could probably tell that he wasn't doing well. Before he could even attempt to speak though, he felt her hands stiffen. "He's earthbending!" _Huh . . . ?_ Sokka looked at the kitchen, and suddenly the stone from their floor hurled the Dragon towards the right wall. The wall shattered on contact and the Dragon kept repeating the process until he must have reached the street. _Ho . . . how is that . . . possible? He was a waterbender_. The ice around his feet proved that much.

"To-Toph . . . ," he rasped. He looked up at her and he saw her head go from looking at the hole in the wall to gazing down at him. "He still here?" He knew he wasn't.

She shook her head slowly, her eyebrows creased and her mouth trembling at the weariness and pain in his voice. "No. He got out onto the street and I can't sense him anymore."

Sokka tried to nod, but he coughed instead, and pain shot through his chest. Stupid ribs. He felt Toph begin to try to raise him to a vertical angle and the pain that exploded from throughout his body almost caused him to black out. He bit his lower lip.

"Toph . . . get Hina." Then he allowed himself to fall unconscious.

. . .

**Oh, another cliffhanger! I hope that you guys enjoyed the action and that it was relatively easy to follow. Yeah, it turned out a bit darker than I thought, but when you think about it, fighting benders is really difficult, you know? And I tried to show that here. Fortunately, the aftermath of this will be up before noon tomorrow, so there won't be a long wait. Thanks for reading, and please let me know what you think! **


	10. Dragon Spirit of Radio 10: recovery

**Oh my God, an update? Well, it's more like this was mostly written for last chapter, but it became so long and tonely different, I decided to split them up into two chapters, so here is the aftermath of the fight and what I hope is a decent conversation between Sokka and Toph . . . though that may not be the case.**

**However, on a much bigger note, this is chapter 10! This is the first time, ever, any of my stories has reached double digits—you guys have no idea how exciting that is for me. Thank you all for sticking with me this far and I hope that this story will continue to please you for the next ten chapters too!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

. . .

Sokka felt a warmth beginning to spread throughout his body. The pain that had knocked him out seemed to be at bay and, to be honest, he felt a bit drunk. His stomach lurched and his body felt really . . . _liquidy_ for the lack of a better term. It felt fuller than usual. And the hands pressing down on his torso weren't helping.

After a few seconds, he cracked an eye open and winced at the glow of the light coming from his chest. He recognized the glow: waterbending healing. That would explain the sensations; Hina must've used a lot of water for his body to absorb so she could heal him. He tentatively flexed his foot and almost smiled; good as new.

Hina must've noticed the movement, but not as quick as the familiar small steps that he heard coming towards him. "Sou!" Toph. Was she okay? He didn't have long to wait, as she shoved Hina aside and gripped his shirt. "You okay?"

". . . I was, until you grabbed my skin like that, and now I think my ribs broke again . . ." he groaned, but he smiled. He opened his eyes only to see Toph look annoyed. She swiftly dropped him and he fell against the floor; she followed this up with a quick punch to his right shoulder. He winced, but the pain wasn't too bad; Hina must've been able to be more thorough than he anticipated.

"You dumbass! You had me worried sick." Did Toph sound like she was pouting? _That was definitely a pouty tone_, he thought, but he did well not to say it out loud. Hina got off the floor where she landed and brushed off her pants.

"How are you feeling?" She asked.

"Better, thanks." He winced a little. "Not completely up to par, but better. I can at least move my foot and shoulder without blacking out, if that's what you mean." He began to sit up. From what he could tell, they were still in the apartment. The walls had been fixed and the hole was gone as were the remains of the table and pottery, and the kitchen counter still looked damaged, but otherwise, you couldn't tell that a battle had just taken place. "How long was I out?"

"A half a day." Hina answered. She followed his gaze to the walls. "Bu was nice enough to use his earthbending to fix things up. You'd think we'd have more earthbenders, being so close to the Earth Kingdom, but what can you do?"

Toph stiffened. "Well, I didn't see Bu stay and fight, or you for that matter." She said coldly. Hina winced but didn't reply. Sokka tried to give Toph a pointed look, but she wasn't facing him; she was far too busy glaring at Hina—then Sokka realized that no matter how pointy his look, she wouldn't see it. _Again?_ And just when he was getting better at remembering she was blind . . .

He sighed. "It's okay, Omai; I mean, it's naturally to be scared of that thing, you know? After all, it claimed to know her." He chuckled, but then allowed his voice to drop. "You don't, do you?" Toph nodded and seemed to relax while Sokka knew she was just focusing on Hina's heartbeat.

"No!" Hina denied, palms raised. Sokka glanced at Toph, who shook her head. Truth. "I mean, I don't think so . . . I don't even know anyone from the Fire Nation, much less why they would want to protect me."

"You're not dating any jealous firebending boyfriends?" Sokka joked, but Hina shook her head.

"No, I don't have anyone." She flushed a little. Sokka was about to reply when he noticed an oddly warm moisture on his lap. He glanced down and paled. Toph sniffed and drew back, her coldness forgotten at the smell—he, an almost grown man, had peed himself. Hina noticed and chuckled nervously. "Sorry, I should have warned you; I had to use a lot of water, and your body absorbed most it, so . . ." She shrugged. Sokka sighed, his pride already gone.

"It's fine, Hina . . . it's not your fault."

"But you were really brave!" She had an appreciative look on her face. "You held off that Dragon and let us get away. It was amazing. Where did you learn to fight?"

"Not well enough, apparently; did you see how beat up I was ?"

"Well, yeah, but you were fighting a spirit! You had to be amazing, otherwise you wouldn't have lived, right?" Toph glared at Hina, but Sokka shook his head.

"That was no spirit Hina—he was a bender." Hina paled a little.

"What?"

"There's nothing supernatural about that bastard; it's just some guy in a mask." Sokka groaned. "I managed to destroy his mask, but we couldn't see his face because of the darkness."

Hina gasped. "Does Mr. Fuin know?"

Sokka shook his head, "No, he doesn't; actually, why don't you go tell him and send him up here? We should probably talk about how our rent's gonna change to pay for the damages." Hina nodded and, with one more look over her shoulder, she walked out.

Toph waited until Hina was heading down the stairs, and then she turned to Sokka and punched him again. "Ow!"

"What the _fuck_ were you thinking?" She snapped. "I should've stayed; I could've kicked that guy's ass, but no, you just had to be the fucking hero and nearly get yourself killed!"

"But . . . our cover?"

"I don't give a _shit_ about the cover!" She grabbed his shirt and "looked" him in the eyes. "If there's a fight, I can take care of it!"

"We need the cover and you know it! And, for the record, I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself!" He snapped.

"Apparently not!" She retorted and pushed him back onto the floor. "Do you have any idea of how weak your heartbeat was? Any idea of how much you were screaming?" She demanded.

"I had the guy on the ropes!"

"Had him on the ropes? Look at you!" Sokka glanced down at his bandages.

"Well, yeah, but I was kicking ass before he turned out to be a bender!" He sighed. "The thing is . . . I don't think he came there looking for a fight." Sokka trailed off as he replayed last night in his head. "No, he didn't bring a weapon or anything—I think he probably just wanted to scare us, he didn't expect that anyone would be stupid enough to fight a '_spirit_'; that's Avatar crap. But he tried to keep up the pretense . . . at least until I forced him to start bending . . ."

"What do you mean," Toph demanded. "How did you 'force' him to bend?"

"What I mean is that the problem with benders is that they normally can't fight without their bending—Zuko's an exception," he added quickly before Toph could interrupt. "The thing is, benders become so dependent on their element that they don't bother learning how to fight without it, which only furthers the idea that this guy didn't know what he was doing . . . maybe his appearance was unplanned, off script and when he found himself over his head, he had to use his waterbending to compensate."

"Waterbending?" Toph paused in her tirade—though Sokka could tell there was much more there. "But he earthbended when he escaped . . ." She trailed off. "Unless his partner was helping him."

"Oh? So it's a he now?" Sokka tried to smirk, but he knew Toph was still mad at him. "But yeah, that's what I figured, given fact he definitely was the one behind the waterbending, that's for damn sure. But we didn't see him take any earthbending stances, so his partner was probably close to the action. He must have been in the building."

"I didn't sense anyone." Toph said.

"Well, yeah, but you were a bit . . . distracted." She began to look mad again. "Anyway! Then what if it was one of the guests? One of the other tenants?"

"It's likely . . . well, at the very least, we can rule out Hina."

Sokka groaned. "Yeah, I guess we can—though she may not know she's connected to the Dragon, but at the very least, the Dragon's connected to her, so we can't leave her alone yet." Toph tapped her foot. "But yeah, we can probably write her off as innocent." He paused. Something was tickling the back of his mind . . . a memory of the tenant meeting . . . . Suddenly, something clicked in Sokka's mind.

Toph's eyebrows furrowed. "You're excited; what'd you figure out?"

"I think I just figured out one of our 'Dragon' team." He smiled.

"Seriously?" Toph grinned. "That's the Snoozles I know. What about the earthbender?"

"That one, I'm slightly less sure of. I mean, you were with everyone, right? You'd have noticed if someone suddenly started earthbending."

"Well . . . not exactly; remember that the guy was earthbended out of here after I distracted the Dragon guy, remember? They could've started then."

"Well, the only earthbender we know here is Bu, but he doesn't even live here anymore, right? I mean, he checked out right when we got here."

Toph had a funny look on her face. Sokka narrowed his eyes; she must've figure something out too. "True, that normally means we could rule him out, but if he's good enough to make help his partner out without even seeing him, we could be in trouble . . . well, you'd be; he's nothing I can't handle."

"Will you just spill it already?" He groaned impatiently; Toph just cocked her eyebrow.

"Hey, you started this vague thing; suck it up. Besides, you don't' have to worry about the earthbender because I'll be the one to take him down."

"Cover?" As soon as the word left his mouth, he knew he should've just stayed quiet. The look on Toph's face was murderous.

"Oh, and just stand helplessly by like a good little girl while my partner takes care of everything? I can wipe my own ass, Sokka."

"That's not what I'm worried about and you know it!"

"I know damn well what you're worried about, and I know damn well that I'm not going to ever, EVER pretend to be helpless again. You may think you're some kind of hotshot hero, but you're not; you're just going to _die_ fighting this guys if you do it alone." Toph yelled.

"Who said anything about fighting? We just need a plan to capture them and then give them to the police!"

"Oh, and in what dream was that? Be the cynical Sokka for a second; when has that ever worked? Face it, Sokka, if it comes down to fighting, I'm going to be right there; fuck helpless and fuck you for thinking I'm going to just do whatever you say."

"Toph, I just want to get to the bottom of this . . . !" Sokka retorted.

"And I just want us to get out of this alive!" She snapped. "Think for a second, smart guy! How do you think Aang would feel if you got hurt or worse just because he wanted to appear neutral? Or Katara? Or, hell, _Suki_? They would be miserable, this case won't get solved, an-and I'll be down a best friend." The expression on her face softened as she sniffed.

Sokka's frustration began to fade. "So that's what this is about . . ."

"Do you have any idea of what it was like? Just standing down there with those wimps, all the while I could 'see' every time you stumbled? Heard every time you screamed and you asked me _not to do anything about it_?" She sat down next to him and fell silent. She didn't speak for a few seconds as she thought through what she was going to say next until she finally removed her scarf. Sokka looked at the black betrothal necklace that remained stuck around her neck and felt slightly more guilty. "Look, I know this thing doesn't actually mean anything, but the space earth does—we're family, Sokka, and I will do whatever I can to save you, no matter who I have to fight, who I have to _kill_ to do it."

Sokka stared. He had had no idea . . . but he should have. He mentally smacked himself. How could he be so _stupid_? He sighed and actually got up and sat down next to her.

She glanced over at him, then looked away as she wiped her hand across her eyes; Sokka just looked over at the wall to his left that had suddenly become interesting. After a few seconds, he turned back to looking at his best friend and pretended not to notice the faint stream of water running down the side of her face. "Toph, I'm so sorry. The thing is, I do know how you feel."

"I highly doubt that." She said bitterly; was that a flush to her cheeks? Sokka chalked it up to her bad temper and carried on.

"Look, think about it for a second: how do you think I feel every time Katara goes to fight? Or Aang, or you? All of you have this amazing bending stuff and you fight larger than life things—my sister beat _Azula_, one of the craziest people on the planet. Aang defeated _the Fire Lord_, the baddest dude on the planet! Iroh and Bumi took over cities; yet, when we took down the Fire Nation fleet, _you _almost died and I couldn't do a single thing about it." He sighed. "More often than not, I just I have to trust that you guys will be okay." Pause. "At least you have the potential to kick ass and solve everything—I don't. I'm just a guy with a sword or a table leg, and dead weight."

Toph didn't reply right away. Sokka didn't break the silence; he just waited patiently. Finally, she said, "And that's enough."

Sokka blinked. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, Sokka, is that you being you is enough for us." She smiled a little. "We know you're always worrying and keeping us on schedule—you're like our dad, but much nicer than Katara."

"You will not talk about your mother in that tone of voice, young lady!" Sokka snapped in his Wang Fire Voice. The two friends stared at each other and then began to laugh. Even though his ribs hurt the whole time, it felt like the best thing in the world.

"Ex-exactly!" Toph laughed, but then calmed down a little. "That's just it; you can pull us through everything. No matter how dark things got, you can always make us laugh, come up with a plan, see the truth—we can already tell you're amazing, Sarcasm-and-Meat Guy, but it seems that sometimes you need reminding."

For the second time, Sokka found himself unable to say anything. At that moment, even when he had confided in her about his mother, Toph had never seemed more . . . . He couldn't put a word on it; what he did know was that he never wanted to lose her—never wanted to lose anyone outside of his family ever again. He didn't want them feeling helpless or hurt and he somehow managed to do both to Toph, his best friend, and he hated himself for it.

"I'm so sorry." Was all he could say.

She sniffed and nodded. "Yeah, yeah . . . I'm sorry for being such sissy."

"How so? It's not like you were crying or anything; only manly men like me can cry." He said, and she grinned.

"You'd need chest hair to be a manly man."

"They'll grow in!" He insisted.

She shook her head, "No way; you're what, eighteen? If they were coming in, they'd be here by now; face it, bud, you're as smooth as a baby's ass. Good luck keeping your man card with that."

He began to protest, but then he just shook his head and smiled again. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For worrying. For being you." He grinned.

Toph flushed and glanced at the wall to their right. "Right back at you, I guess." A comfortable silence past between them. Finally, Toph grunted and got to her feet. "So, as nice as this therapy session was, who exactly is this Dragon?"

"I'm not completely sure what he wants," Sokka began as he slowly got to his feet. "But we're going to get this son of a bitch, Toph; here's what's going on . . . ."

. . .

**And that's it for now! Granted, I'm still not at all sure about how the conversation between Sokka and Toph went, so please let me know how I could've improved it (and no, declarations of love doesn't count as an answer). So our heroes have figured out who the villains are—have you? Remember that the first person to guess correctly who the Dragon is gets an AtLA or LoK oneshot by me (though no yaoi or yuri, and you wouldn't want me to write a lemon…maybe a strawberry, but not a lemon), so feel free to review and state your guess! And what you thought of the chapter, that works too.**

**However, the next update may not come until the second Sunday in February, since I do have papers and stuff piling up, but it will come within the next two weeks, I promise! Thanks for reading!**


	11. Dragon Spirit of Radio 11: confrontation

**Hey guys! Yes, I know it's been a week and a half since the last update and I'm sorry about that; however, I wanted to try and get back to my Sunday update schedule, so I waited a bit longer. Besides, I wound up making this chapter twice as long as normal, so hey, it works out right? Right. **

**But for once I'm going to cut the beginning Author's Note early, but there'll be more to discuss by the end of the chapter. So enjoy!**

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except this pair of sneakers that were dropped on my head while I was walking under a bridge. Off to Camp Green Lake!**

**. . .**

Sokka and Toph were standing around the lobby, chatting with Mrs. Fink and Tiguh, as they waited for the others to show up for the tenant meeting. Ever since the Dragon attack two days ago, Fuin had been antsy to get everyone together and talk it out—which Sokka took to mean to reassure them that the Dragon couldn't get to them in their homes and kill them while they were sleeping—at least, not until rent has been taken; Sokka may like the man, but that didn't mean he had any illusions as to what his number one priority was.

Yet, despite the landlord's best efforts, at least one of the tenants was considering moving out. Gin had had his stuff packed and ready to go an hour after the attack, but Tiguh had managed to talk him into waiting a few more days, at least to give Mr. Fuin a chance to explain what was being done about the Dragon threat. Granted, there wasn't much of a plan besides already hiring the greatest detectives he knew (clearly he didn't know a lot of people), but the other tenants didn't have to know that. Instead, Sokka had convinced him that another strategy was in order.

As he had explained, there were only two things that seemed to draw the Dragon out of hiding: his hatred of the Fire Nation and protecting Hina; there had to be some kind of way to combine the two. Sokka had managed to cobble together an idea, but he sort of thought that it sucked, but there wasn't much he could do: they needed to deal with the Dragon and quickly, so he decided to take a lesson from Zuko's book and start playing it by ear. It worked well last time, didn't it? Winging it led to him rescuing his dad and Suki from the Boiling Rock—why shouldn't it catch a Dragon too?

_Yeah, there's that optimistic spirit that pisses Toph off so_, he thought. He was actually tempted to say as much to her, but she just punched him in the arm before he could say anything. _How the hell did she . . . oh._ There they were—just the people he wanted to see.

Kahn and Ti were just walking in with Hina—she was laughing at something Kahn had said, though Sokka couldn't imagine what it was; from his brief exposure to the man during the last meeting, it had seemed he had had the wit of a rock . . . _or Suki_, he mentally conceded—he may love the girl to death, but she couldn't come up with a comeback to save her life. _Lord of the guys who don't win? Please_. Next time he saw her, he would have to try and give her more pointers about nicknames . . . and he was distracted again. He shook his head to clear it and renewed his meaningful glare in their direction.

It all seemed to fit. The Water Tribe warrior could remember the last tenant meeting—the second Gin had insulted Hina, Kahn had reacted to it—he had tried to defend her and assure her that all men weren't like Gin. Sokka knew what friendship looked like and that Kahn seemed to take any offense to Hina a bit too personally to just be her friend . . . well, maybe she thought they were just close friends, but there was clearly something there—at least, a bond so close that he could misinterpret it; for all he knew, they could've just been screwing with him.

Confusing misreadings of relationships aside, Kahn was at least overprotective of Hina and if he had caught wind of that they had been beginning to stalk her, he definitely would have something to say about it and he didn't seem to have a level head—which would mean that it wouldn't be out of character for Kahn to do something drastic on the spur of the moment, like, say, destroying someone else's apartment and crashing their party.

Most damning of all, though, was the fact that his brother was a waterbender.

While Kahn seemed paler than the average Water Tribesman, Ti's tanner skin and waterbending pretty much cinched Kahn's potential waterbending ability as far as Sokka was concerned. It all fit; granted, the mask Kahn had left behind was actually rather sophisticated as far as craftsmanship went—Sokka, after he had recovered enough to satisfy Toph, had been amazed that it even had contained some of those electric lights that were going around. It appeared to run on something that could store energy for brief periods of time—if Sokka had to guess, he figured that the item could be charged with using water to crank a handle? Paddle? If only he had had more time with it, but they needed to get this over with before someone else got hurt.

Granted, he didn't seem like he would be all that connected to Bu, who Toph swore was the earthbender they were looking for—he wasn't even at the tenant meeting _because he didn't live there_. Still, he trusted Toph's judgment enough to follow her lead, even if it was stupid . . .

His train of thought was interrupted by Toph slamming her elbow into his side. He tried to keep his wheezing quiet, but it was a close thing. With his recently-healed ribs aching, he began to focus on what Fuin was saying.

". . . and let that be a lesson to the rest of you: if you have to pee and you've lost your key, go to the window at the end of the hall and send your business out onto the street, because that's what it is: your business. Not mine, and thus it's not mine to clean up. Thank you Gin for your inspiring story; clearly we can all learn a thing or two." He gave an approving nod to the light haired man standing only a few feet away from his desk.

"I know you're just sucking up to me because I threatened to leave, you bastard." Gin replied. "Besides, I got arrested for that."

"Moving on," Fuin said as he ignored Gin. "It has come to my attention that the Dragon has struck again and this time claimed more than Mrs. Fink's ankle . . ."

"It was my whole leg," she moaned from her place next to Toph. She waved her cane to add to the effect, only to stumble a little.

"Right, the Dragon claimed more than Mrs. Fink's ankle . . ." He ignored her protest. "Anyway, it is to my understanding that he attacked Omai and Sou's party and did quite a bit of damage; however, before anyone was hurt, Sou used his head and got everyone to safety and confronted the Dragon himself! He clearly got wounded—I mean, if the bandages didn't give it away—but he managed to force the Dragon away." There some applause and Sokka had the decency not to look to smug with himself while Toph was more than willing to keep his ego in check; she stomped on his foot. _Why does she keep doing that?_ "Unfortunately, that means the Dragon's attacks have begun to escalate and I have no choice . . . we are going to have to involve the police."

Sokka and Toph gapped—this was certainly not part of the plan; what the hell was Mr. Fuin thinking? Fortunately, it seems that they weren't the only ones surprised, for Fuin quickly raised his hands to pacify the crowd. "I know most of you have been reluctant for police involvement thus far, but with this escalation, I cannot allow anyone else to be put at risk. If you still feel the need to move out, I request that you at least wait until after the police have done their initial questioning."

"When do you think they'll get here?"

Fuin shrugged, "I'm not sure, honestly; they don't seem to be that organized—or they're just busy with other cases. Right now, my best guess is that they'll be here tomorrow afternoon. Make of that what you will." Everyone else nodded reluctantly while Sokka and Toph glanced at each other.

"He's not lying." She whispered. _Damn_. They would have to do the plan sooner than expected.

"Anyway, sit tight in your rooms for the rest of the day—try not to leave the building for another day or two, until the police arrive. If you have any questions, please let me know now." As Mrs. Fink approached the landlord to ask him about foodstuffs and whatever else, Sokka looked around and made eye contact with Hina, who nodded. He then looked around for Ao, one of the Fire Nation colonials that lived on their floor. It didn't take long—all he had to do was look for a bunch of people he didn't recognize.

Indeed, there they were in the corner of the room, away from everyone else. The brothers seemed to be of equal height—only slightly shorter than Sokka. They all had slightly paler skin, but it wasn't nearly as noticeable as Zuko's; if Sokka wasn't looking for Fire Nation characteristics, he wouldn't have noticed them. Ao met his gaze and nodded, his goggles obscuring much of his face—the uniforms for the power plant employees creeped Sokka out, if he were honest; they reminded him too much of the Fire Nation engineers. Still, at least it seemed the eldest Fire Nation colonial and he were on the same page—it must have been their mutual big brotherness (it was totally a real thing, no matter what Toph said).

By now, most of the others had gone; Sokka gently squeezed Toph's shoulder and she reluctantly nodded. As to not cast suspicion, she was going to head back to the room and chat with Tiguh and Mrs. Fink—at least it would distract them while he got Fuin, Ao, and Hina caught up with the plan. "Mrs. Fink? I was wondering if you'd help me make some tea—I never got the knack for it after my mother ran off with some circus guy when I was young . . ." _That's my Toph_. Gossip eel-hound Fink wouldn't be able to resist potential childhood trauma like that.

Sure enough, her leg must have miraculously healed, if the speed of her waddle was any indication—by the time Sokka blinked, she and Toph were down the hall and almost out of earshot. He waited a few seconds and then approached Fuin's desk, where Ao—who had removed his goggles to reveal golden eyes—and Hina were already chatting.

"What the hell is this about the police?" He demanded.

Fuin just crossed his arms and tried not to look intimidated. "It's as I said: the Dragon has hurt my tenants—if this idea of yours doesn't draw him out, I'm getting the police involved and letting the dice fall where they may." His gaze softened. "I'm sorry I got you involved; I didn't think you'd be so injured in the process."

"Forget my injuries!" Sokka smacked the desk and gestured to Hina. "She healed me up! I'm good as new!" He winced a little at the soreness of his chest, but shrugged it off. Then he actually began to think about what involving the police could do to the plan and began to smile. "Anyway, fine; we'll do this tonight—you did good by involving the police, Mr. Fuin."

Fuin looked confused. "How so? Just two seconds ago, you slammed your hands on my desk at the idea."

"Now we're not the only ones with a deadline . . . don't worry about that. All I can say is that the Dragon will strike tonight; probably by going after your records, so you may want to swap those out with fakes as soon as we're done here."

The landlord's eyes widened, but he reluctantly nodded. "Fine, I shall do that later. Now, tell us what you have figured out in that stupid investigation of yours."

"Investigation?" Sokka glanced at Hina out of the corner of his eye and sighed.

"Okay, you may as well know: Omai and I are not actually fiancé lovers or whatever; we're detectives that Mr. Fuin hired to try and look into this Dragon thing."

Hina gapped, but quickly regained her composure. "You lied to us?"

Sokka winced, "'lied' is such an ugly word, but yeah, I guess you could say that. We were going to tell you, of course!" He hastily added. "But we were just waiting for the right time, preferably after we caught this guy since we're sure he lives in the building . . ."

"Enough with the hints; just tell us already so we can get this guy dealt with." Ao scowled. "I have the early shift tomorrow, so if we could get a move on . . ."

The Water Tribe warrior all but visibly sighed; no one had respect for the dramatic buildup anymore. "I know you may not like to hear this, but we've figured out who the two people behind the Dragon are, but we're still not sure what they're after . . ." He then told them about Kahn and Bu, about how they were causing the smoke and got to make the mask. Fuin looked dismayed while Ao just raised an eyebrow. Hina, on the other hand, had a more complicated look on her face: she seemed shocked, but at the same time, she seemed almost . . . happy?

Ao noticed this and his golden eyes narrowed. "What do you seem so pleased about? You just found out that your best friend is out hurting people."

She shook her head, "I know, I know—it's just that . . ."

"You've been secretly in love with him forever but just couldn't get him to see you in a romantic light but now you just found out that he loves you back? Yeah, heard it before." Sokka sighed. "And that's great for you—maybe it'll go somewhere when you visit him in prison." Hina crossed her arms, but didn't disagree. Sokka felt bad for her—he couldn't imagine how he'd take it if it was Suki who was guilty of something—but he needed her help to catch him and she knew it. She reluctantly nodded and he moved on.

"Okay guys, here's what the basic plan is going to be: Kahn seems to hate two things, them being the Fire Nation—no offense, Owie . . ."

"It's just 'Ao,' thank you very much."

_It has come to my attention that Toph may not be best influence on my memory_, Sokka thought, but he pretended he didn't hear the firebender while he promised himself to have a talk with Toph about her nicknames for people. "I meant 'Ao,' of course; I was testing to see if you were listening is all." _Nice cover; that'll fool him for sure_. "ANYWAY; as we were saying, Kahn hates the Fire Nation and seeing Hina being involved with/stalked by other guys, so we need to get him to sleep up. Once we nail him, he should lead us to Bu, if only because we have boobs on our side."

"And how do you propose to do that again?" Fuin asked, twirling his mustache in thought.

"Funny you should use the word 'propose' . . ." Sokka smiled, thinking back to his mishap with Toph. "I'm going to leak it to Kahn that Owchie—Ao—will be proposing to Hina tonight; that they were secretly dating and she had kept it a secret from him because she didn't want things to get complicated."

Ao and Hina looked dismayed, "That's insane and wrong!" Hina protested while Ao nodded.

"Your boyfriend broke both of my ankles and screwed over my ribs—I'm sorry, but at this point, he's fair game as far as deception goes; he has this coming." Sokka scowled. "Anyway, while we do that—probably on the roof or some other romantic place in the building—Omai will be on the lookout for Bu." He glanced at Fuin, who nodded—he understood that she'd be waiting in the secret room for Bu to show up and let Kahn down to get the gear. The second the earthbender showed up though . . . Sokka shuddered; spirits have mercy on his soul. "Is everyone okay with the plan?"

Ao and Hina glanced at each other. "But I don't even know her that well." Ao said.

Sokka could have ripped his own stubble off his face in frustration. "You two aren't actually getting engaged or anything—we just need you to act like it until Kahn comes, at least for ten minutes or so."

Reluctantly, the new couple nodded, even if they were still grimacing. "Can I wear my work goggles?" Ao asked.

"Fine, if you think it adds to the romantic atmosphere, go for it; I really don't give a damn." Sokka nodded. "Okay then, you two will head up to the roof at sunset, and with any luck, Kahn should be out there a few minutes after that. So that gives us roughly three hours to prepare and let Kahn stew for a while. Let's roll."

. . .

Sokka tried to act innocent as he made his way over to Kahn's room. With a slight pause outside the wooden door, he glanced over his shoulder, half expecting the Dragon to leap out at him from the darkness of the hallway. When nothing leapt out him, he sighed, and then straightened up. _Be confident; all he did was try to kill you—no biggie. After all, you talked to Zuko and he chased you around the world; how hard could this be?_ He knocked on the door. Fortunately, he didn't have long to wait.

"What's up?" Kahn asked as he opened the door a crack.

"Hey Kahn, is Hina around?"

The pale man's eyes narrowed. "No, she isn't. Why are you asking? She owe you money or something?"

_Is that a common problem with _everyone_ around here?_ "No, no, nothing like that! It's just I was talking with Ao earlier and he mentioned that he was hoping to ask her to marry him tonight and I was thinking we could organize a party or something . . . something wrong?" Sokka paused and pretended not to feel slightly guilty for the horrified look on Kahn's face—the man did break his ribs, after all.

"WHAT?" Kahn yelled.

Sokka shushed him and quickly looked around. "What are you thinking? She could've heard that from halfway across the city, dumbass!" He took a quick look at Kahn's face and tried to look sympathetic. "You didn't know they were dating."

"N-no I didn't. . .," Kahn trailed off. His fists were clenched and he seemed to be trembling. He was silent for a few seconds, as if he were thinking about something; Sokka didn't say anything. Finally, Kahn seemed to come to a decision. "Do you know where it's going to be?"

The Water Tribe warrior blinked and tried to look surprised—he hoped he was convincing, "Er, I think he said something about going to the roof at sunset—isn't that the most romantic spot in the building? Makes sense, if you think about it. Nice view, a ways from everyone else but it's still a convenient location . . . did I mention a nice view? Actually, it doesn't seem that original at all, now that I stop and think about it. Take the woman on a date first, the cheap bastard. Am I right?"

"Yeah, you're right." With that, Kahn slammed the door on Sokka's face. The Water Tribe warrior smiled slightly and, with a slight spring in his step, he turned and walked towards the stairs—things were actually going to according to plan for once.

. . .

Why was nothing going to plan for once? Sokka slammed his forehead into the wall he was hiding against. Rubbing his now-sore forehead, he glanced around the dim roof. It was pretty spacious, that much was true: there was a water tower positioned right in the center of the roof (_That could be trouble_, Sokka thought), and surrounding the surprisingly large area was a small, stone barrier—though in Sokka's opinion, it would more than likely trip a person over the edge than it would stop them, but hey, maybe if they were shuffling, it would do something. Outside of the water tower, there was a small, doorway-sized box that contained the stairs to go down to the third floor; frankly, with the way the wind was howling, Sokka didn't even want to think about the third floor—it was far too tempting. Granted, he was used to the cold, but wind chill would always be a bitch to put up with, and if it bothered him, he could only imagine how Ao and Hina were feeling. "You're doing great! Just keep that pose!" He called over to the "couple," who mutually flipped him off.

Ao was on his knees and was holding a ring while Hina tried to stay in a surprised-but-pleased position, though Sokka could barely make out her facial expression in the fading light—he hoped that the electric lantern hanging off the side of the door would kick in soon.

He sighed and returned to kneeling down at the side of the box, his bone knife stuck into the wall. He rested his ear right next to it and closed his eyes. As he had explained to Jet that long time ago, he tried to focus on the vibrations that the third floor gave off. Thus far, he hadn't gotten much, but there seemed to be an abnormal amount of "noise" coming from Mrs. Fink's room—what exactly that could've been, Sokka didn't bother thinking about; he didn't need to repress anymore memories than he had already, especially after that one time he had walked in on Aang and—he shuddered. _Happy thoughts, happy thoughts_, he coached himself. Though he was sure that Toph would've been able to figure out these vibrations right away, he decided it was better for them to split up again. Granted, she hadn't been thrilled with the idea, but he had managed to make her see sense—that, and she was going to get to beat someone up, which always seemed to bring a smile to her face.

Sokka had to admit though, that he really did appreciate her concern. It was funny; when they had first met the blind earthbender, she acted like she didn't care if he lived or died—at least, for the first week or two. Fortunately, his natural charisma and good looks (_er, not that Toph would appreciate those_, he quickly thought) paid off and they had become at least some kind of friends. It certainly hadn't hurt that Aang and Katara were always drawn together, so frankly, Sokka and Toph were just happy not to be forced into the third wheel position from that point on. Still, to think they had become close enough that she could get that worked up about his safety . . . it was nice.

Before his thoughts could drift too far off on that topic though, he noticed something: someone was walking up the stairs with a slow, deliberate pace. _This is it_. He gestured to Ao and Hina, who nodded. Ao took a deep breath and began to speak.

"Oh Hina, my beloved, I know we have only been dating two years . . ." Sokka mentally face palmed himself. _"Two years?" I told him: the script said six months! Amateurs_. ". . .but you have made me happier than I've been in a long time."

"You too . . . dearie." _Emote! Emote!_ Sokka mentally yelled. _I've heard rocks with more emotional range!_ That was it; after this little adventure, these people were getting acting lessons. Still, forced delivery or no, it seemed to do the trick.

"Then, Hina, would you—"

The steel door slammed open; had Sokka not been expecting it, he would've fallen on his butt. Still, he quickly sheathed the knife and quietly drew his sword, ready to pounce out from his hiding place, only to stumble when he heard Hina say "Kahn?" _What the hell? Why isn't he in costume?_

The Water Tribe warrior peaked out from behind the corner and indeed, there was Kahn, just standing there with a determined stance, wearing his street clothes—no fancy mask.

"Yes, Hina, it's me, and I'm sorry to interrupt this moment between you and your . . . _boyfriend_ . . ." The amount of disgust Kahn managed to get into that one word was impressive. Had Sokka not been pissed that Kahn wasn't playing along like a good villain, he would've clapped. "But before you say yes to him, I just need to say something. As your best friend, I think I have that right." Scratch that—had Sokka not known better, he would've gagged.

"What are you doing here?" Ao asked overdramatically, determined to stick to his guns.

"I'm here to try and stop the woman I love from making the mistake of her life!" Kahn snapped. "Besides, if you're about to ask someone to marry you, you should at least take off your damn goggles first. Moron." Yep, there went Sokka's stomach—it wasn't just comebacks Kahn sucked at; he wasn't too handy with the art of the dramatic speech either. On the bright side, at least Hina looked happy. "Sou told me the whole thing, and I knew that I just couldn't allow this to happen."

"Oh Kahn . . .," Hina approached him and cupped his cheek. "You fool . . . how could you be so stupid?"

Clearly, that wasn't the reaction Kahn had been expecting. "What?"

"I mean, I've been waiting for you to say something for six months now . . ."

"R-really?" If Sokka wasn't too busy keeping his lunch down, he would've been touched by the hope in Kahn's voice.

Hina reluctantly lowered her hand and turned her gaze towards the street. "But you didn't have to start hurting people."

"What are you talking about?" Kahn asked as he tried to put a hand on her shoulder. She angrily shook him off.

"What the hell do you think I'm talking about?" She snapped as she whirled around to face him. "I'm talking about this Dragon business! We've figured it out that it was you in the mask. Why are you hurting people? Do you have any idea how badly you hurt Sou? Had I not been here . . ."

Sokka crept around enough to be able to get a decent look at Kahn's face and swore under his breath. The sheer look of shock and hurt that crossed his pale features confirmed it—Sokka didn't need Toph to tell him that Kahn had been caught off guard and was confused by what Hina accused him of.

"What are you talking about? I'm not the Dragon thing! How could you think it was me! You know me better than that."

"Apparently I don't. Think about it: you're always coming to my defense, and acting stupid about it! At the party, the Dragon charged in, demanding people to leave me alone—what the hell am I supposed to think?"

"Look, I understand how that may look, but how could I have destroyed those walls? I'm not an earthbender!" _A fair question_, Sokka conceded. However, he felt that this had gone on long enough—chances are, Bu would be out destroying Fuin's records of his tenants, and Sokka didn't want to force Toph to do everything. He stepped out of the shadows and slowly approached Kahn, sword in hand.

"Look Kahn, we know about your partner—he's the earthbender who helps you make your surprise appearances while you bend the water from the pipes to help with the smokescreen. A neat trick, but it's not going to you much good up here." _Please, please don't notice the water tower thing_. Granted, the Universe had never listened to his requests before, why should it start now?

Yet, his luck surprisingly held, but not in the way he hoped. From the conflicted look on his face, Kahn was clearly hiding something, but he was weighing his options. Finally, he glanced at Hina and sighed. "Okay, I can understand how'd that would look suspicious—I mean, Ti's a waterbender and all, but the truth is I am a bender . . . just not a waterbender."

"What?" Sokka demanded. "Dude, that doesn't make any sense! Your brother's a waterbender and when you attacked me, you bent water. Ergo, you're a waterbender." Kahn just shook his head and held out his palm. Sokka instinctively raised his sword and shifted into his starting stance, sword held poised at eye level.

With a quick flick of his wrist, a flame appeared in Kahn's palm. Hina looked shocked; Sokka couldn't see Ao's facial expression, but he thought he heard a slight gasp. _Aw shit_. ". . . are there any odds that you're faking right now?" Kahn glared at him. "Fair enough." Sokka took a deep breath and calmly walked over to the doorway and kicked it. "Fuck!" He yelped while he rubbed his now-injured foot. He took another few breaths, then he turned back to Kahn.

"Okay then, so you aren't the guy we're looking for—but you're brother's a waterbender, right? Could he . . . ?"

"Be guilty? That's very clever of you, dumbass." Came a voice from the doorway. Sokka almost dropped his sword in surprise, but he managed to make it look like a stumble. His pride intact, he whirled around and saw Ti standing in the doorway, arms crossed and looking a combination between smug and pissed. "Now step back from my brother—all of you!"

"Ti?" Kahn looked shocked—Sokka felt bad; after being afraid of losing the girl of his dreams, then getting the girl of his dreams, and then finding out that his brother was hurting people, it wouldn't be a surprise if he just shut down for a while. "What are you talking about? It's just Hina . . . oh! And guess what? She just told me she loved me! Well, not in those words, but you get what I mean! And you said it would never happen."

"It won't happen." Ti said and a chill was sent down Sokka's spine. He shifted into a battle ready stance and narrowed his eyes. "Don't you get it? You can't trust these people, Kahn—I'm only trying to protect you."

"How are you protecting me, exactly?" Kahn asked quietly. "It looks more like threatening my friends and my . . . girlfriend?" Hina nodded and Kahn smiled.

Ti shook his head with frustration, "Kahn, why do you have to be so trusting? I've told you a thousand times: you can't trust these benders." He took a firm step forward out onto the roof.

"But Ti, we're benders." Kahn said as he stepped between Ti and Hina.

"Exactly! And do you have any idea what I can do?" Ti yelled. Fortunately, the wind had come to a stop, but Sokka didn't have the focus to spare to appreciate the warmth. "If that moon was full, I could bend your blood. I could freeze you in your tracks—hell, I could freeze your _blood_ and make you explode with a few swipes of my hands! Do you even appreciate just how deadly bending can be?" Ti snapped.

"I do, but I know that you won't." Kahn said quietly as he looked his brother in the eye. "Just like I know that Hina won't. I trust you."

"It's not just me!" Ti exclaimed, desperate. "It's everyone that can bend! Do you think they're all good people? That won't cross a line when they think they need to? Or hell, for the fun of it?" Sokka shivered again, this time, he thought of Hama. "Humans are not meant for this kind of power and I will not let you get hurt by it." _Well, at least we have motive now_.

Kahn was silent for a few seconds. "That's too bad, Ti, because I'm not going to just let you hurt Hina, just because you have trust issues." He bent his knees and shifted to a battle-ready stance, his left wrist extended palm up towards Ti. Sokka gingerly tiptoed behind the waterbender and kept his stance.

"Kahn, I don't want to hurt you." Sokka glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw that Ao had taken a similar stance to Kahn's, while Hina had unknowingly gone with one of Katara's stances.

"Then don't; drop this nonsense and we can talk to the police . . . ."

Ti tensed. "No, I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Then I'll just have to beat you up and then we're going to the police together." The two brothers exchanged glances and it was then that everyone knew: the time for talking was over.

A second later, the fight began.

. . .

Toph tensed. She could distantly sense the scuffling going on up on the roof; the vibrations were faint, but it still seemed like negotiations had broken down. _Then again, this is Snoozles we're talking about; since when couldn't he get himself out of trouble?_ She quickly remembered just how many times she had had to save him over the course of the past few years, and quickly did not feel any better. She swallowed and clenched her fists. _He can take care of himself, he can take care of himself_.

It still didn't help.

She shook her head and instead focused on the vibrations of the first floor. At the moment, she was hiding underneath the floor of Bu's old room. Since he had lived across the hall from Fuin, she figured that it'd be last place he would look. Besides, even if he was going to the wooden room under Ed's room, there was no way in hell he'd be able to get there without triggering a vibration and then she'd nab him. Though she wasn't sure which he'd go for first: would he get into costume first or would he just go after the records?

She "stared" into the darkness and scowled; she had always hated these waiting games and worse yet, she didn't have Sokka around to relieve her boredom. Though she supposed she'd rather feel bored versus worried about how Sokka was doing. The earthbender still hadn't forgiven him for almost getting himself killed like the stubborn idiot he was. She fingered her necklace and scowled—as long as she was around, no one was going to hurt him again.

Suddenly, she began to sense something: footsteps. _There shouldn't be anyone here—Fuin evacuated the building_. Sokka had managed to convince Fuin that tonight would be a good night to treat the tenants to a meal. She smirked. _There's the bastard_. The closer he got, the more she began to recognize his heartbeat. Satisfied, she did not leap into action right away. Instead, she waited a bit. Bu was standing in the lobby, probably looking for Fuin's filing cabinet thing. Unfortunately for him, Sokka had planned for that—he had had Fuin replace all the records with fakes. She inched towards the lobby as subtly as she could. When she was only a few inches beneath the stone floor and she could hear Bu begin to swear, she made her move. With a quick twist of her wrist and motion of her foot, she managed to force open the floor beneath where he was standing.

"What the hell?" A deep voice yelped and she smirked. _Got him_.

Instead of just popping up in the lobby, she quickly dug her way to the hallway and quietly let herself onto the cool stone floor. After closing the hole, she took her time walking to the lobby. Sure enough, her senses were accurate: Bu was still struggling to free himself from his earth prison in the floor. _Try all you like, bastard; Sokka couldn't even get out of crevice like that_. "Oh hey, Bu, didn't see you there . . .," she chuckle quietly at her own joke; not that Bu would get it, but what did she care about his sense of humor? "Having a rough night?"

She felt him stop struggling and he was likely just gapping in her direction—yeah, she was that awesome. However, she tensed: his heartbeat hadn't gone up at all. The bastard wasn't even nervous. He wasn't speaking, apparently not one for banter; he was definitely acting different than he had at the party. _At least he can't—ah, fuck_. With a quick twist of his body, Bu forced himself out of the hole. _Of course he's stronger than Sokka; what the hell was I thinking?_ She didn't give herself time to regret it much. Instead, she shifted to an offensive stance and leaned to and fro to dodge the incoming projectiles.

_Sokka . . . your plans suck_.

. . .

**And that's it: the villains are out in the open and the action may finally be starting. *Gasp* How shocking! Well, it wouldn't be if some of you picked up on author's notes. See, until chapter 7 or so, I used to have a list of who the tenants were and such, and initially I decided to include clues as to who the bad guys actually were but I threw in a detail or two that made it seem inaccurate—but no one got it or at least mentioned it, so I took those away. Hopefully this was still something of a surprise for those of you who noticed! If not, then how about that dialogue, huh? *sweat, sweat*.**

**Anyway, with the revelation of the villains, we have the honorary oneshot award to give out: throughout the story arc, I've asked readers to guess who the bad guys were and whoever got it right would win a Legend of Korra or Avatar oneshot from me. In this case though, we only had two participants, and therefore, I'm going to go the generous route and declare them both winners: feliipsun and Jac Bandit, congratulations! You get to request a oneshot (however, it can't be lemon, yaoi, or yuri—you wouldn't even want me to try to write those. Sorry!) So think about what you'd like and either review or message me with the request. Thanks for playing and I hope you enjoyed it.**

**Next time, there'll be more action! Hopefully, it'll be even more awesome than two chapters ago!**

**Read and review please!**


	12. Dragon Spirit of Radio12:Fights and Cops

**Hello, Sokka's Fan-Lawyer here . . . again. When this was last updated back in, like February. Honestly though, I've had this chapter started for quite some time, but between life (I had the hardest/most time consuming English class the college had to offer—literally my work for it maxes out a three ring binder) and inspiration struggles, it just didn't get off the ground. You have several people to thank for kicking me off my butt and to force myself to finally confront this chapter: EvilFuzzy9 and mysterygirl159—check out their quality stuff when you can (and EvilFuzzy9 actually updates consistently.)**

**However, here it finally is: the general conclusion to this story arc; there will be an aftermath chapter, but then it's on to the next story! I would like to thank you all for being patient and I hope that you enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot and even then, it's a loan.**

Sokka blinked—he could have sworn Ti had been standing right in front of him. Suddenly, he heard the slight thud of someone behind him. "Ti!" Kahn roared as he dove towards Sokka's direction, flames already in motion. _Son of a bitch_, Sokka cursed and hurled himself to the ground as the fireballs just barely missed him. He winced at the brightness and watched as Ti dodged the attack. With a "click" in mid-motion, he opened a few water bottles he must have had on his belt and with quick hand gesture, had four water tendrils swirling around him. _Damn, that guy's fast_.

Kahn didn't let his failed attack stop him; he turned on his heel and sent a few more fireballs his brother's way. Instead of using his water whips to take the brunt of the damage though, Ti settled to dodging again. _Why the…oh_. With Ti out of the way, Sokka saw one of the water tower's legs right where the waterbender had been. "Kahn! Watch it!" Sokka yelled as he pivoted towards Ti. "Hina, put out the fire!" Unfortunately for him, Ti was gone again—this time after Ao, who had begun to summon lighting, if the sparks trailing behind his fingers were any indication. Before Sokka could blink, two of Ti's water tendrils shot forward and enveloped Ao's hands and arms. The firebender howled in pain as the electricity from his lightning shot through the water and collapsed to the ground. Sokka could smell the familiar scent of burnt flesh, even from across the roof.

Kahn roared and dove towards Ti, who had retreated towards the roof's exit, while Hina ran to the fallen bender. Sokka was in the middle of the roof where he paused in his pursuit of Ti. He glanced over his shoulder at Hina as she knelt beside Ao and then his gaze shifted forward, where Kahn was dodging the two remaining water whips with surprising agility (more than likely, it was the adrenaline, but still, it seemed to be working). The Water Tribe warrior groaned quietly to himself and turned on his heel and ran back towards Hina.

"Is he okay?" Sokka demanded as he slid to a stop right next to Ao's crumpled and groaning form.

"What the hell you think?" Hina asked as she continued to peel the singed clothing off.

"Okay, obvious. Right. But can you heal him?"

"If I had more water, I could, but if I don't do something soon, Ao's arm muscles are done for." She glanced up. "I need you to make a hole in the water tower."

Sokka blinked. "Yeah, but if I do that, Ti . . ."

Hina cut him off with a steely glare. "Look, I understand, but if I have to choose between saving this man's life, even if it arms some . . . bad guy or letting someone's life be destroyed, I'm going to help them every time and to hell with the consequences. Now, if you don't want me knocking you off this building, I suggest you help me."

Eerily reminded of Katara, Sokka shook his head in frustration. Still, so long as Kahn or himself managed to keep Ti distracted, Hina would surely be able to keep control over the water tower's contents—at least, that's what the Water Tribe warrior told himself as he took his sword and slashed a hole at the water tower's base. Hina already had her arms out and ready as she guided the water's flow towards Ao's arms. Sokka nodded to himself and turned his focus back to the dueling brothers.

For the moment, it seemed as if Kahn and Ti were evenly matched. Kahn had just managed to dodge a whip from one of Ti's remaining tendrils, and Ti, in turn, had dodged the fist-sized fireball Kahn sent towards his face. Ti scowled as he shoved his arms into the tendrils and, with a quick twist of his torso, shot them towards his brother. Kahn's body tensed as he threw himself to the floor to dodge the rapidly extending tendril—yet the second his body touched down, he hurled himself to a crouch and hurried between the two tendrils towards Ti. Before his brother could react, Kahn rapidly shot two fireballs straight at Ti's shoulders tendril. Ti saw this and hurriedly crossed his arms and the tendrils with them, and the fireballs swiftly rammed right into the cool tendrils.

A loud hissing noise rang through the air as steam began to appear around the brothers. Kahn and Ti did not seem to notice; instead, they panted slightly as they looked at each other.

"Ti . . . we don't have to fight." Kahn quietly murmured. "Hina's healing Ao now and she took care of Sou earlier—if you stop, no one else has to get hurt."

Ti shook his head. "I can't stop. I told you: I need to stop the bender threat before it gets too out of hand."

"And how is haunting an apartment building supposed to help with that exactly?" Sokka asked as he walked over to Kahn's side. "Please, I'd love to know."

The waterbender smiled grimly. "Wouldn't you like to know."

Sokka paused as he raised his sword to his shoulders and aimed it at Ti. "Isn—isn't that what I just said?" He raised an eyebrow. "Literally, I just said I'd love—not just like—to know because honestly? It still doesn't make you seem any less wolfbat shit crazy. Give us something better than that for your image's sake, at least; c'mon man, I thought you were the smart brother." Kahn nodded in agreement.

Ti sighed, "You have to start somewhere, right? Clean up your home before you clean up the world."

Sokka's eyes narrowed. There was definitely more to this than that—with any luck, Toph'd be able to get it out of Bu. Perhaps with some more _convincing_, Ti'd come around, but until then . . . . Sokka didn't respond. Instead, he threw himself towards the older man and stabbed his sword tip towards Ti's leg—if he could just immobilize him for a minute . . . .

Ti didn't even blink; instead, he rapidly lifted his hands and with a quick gesture, condensed the hot, blinding steam around them and smothered Sokka's face with the cold. _Son of bitch!_ Sokka screamed as the heat seared his face and blinded him for a second. Before he could even try to blink, Ti had thrown himself to the side and sent a punch right at the Water Tribe Warrior's face. His fist met an all-too vulnerable nose and a loud _crack_ resounded.

While Sokka fell to the ground and clutched his nose, Kahn appeared immediately behind his falling form and, before Ti could react, returned the favor by punching his brother in the eye. Ti grunted as he stumbled backwards. "W-we have to keep him busy; Hina, water tower, right?" Sokka rasped while he tentatively let go of his nose. Kahn shot him a confused look. Sokka just rolled his eyes. "Get him!" Kahn nodded and ran after his brother. Unfortunately for him, Ti had already recovered and begun to make his move.

Ti, with a quick sidestep, ducked around Kahn's lunge, and was making a dash towards the water tower. _Shit!_ Sokka swung his sword, but his sight was still blurry from the steam attack and Ti easily dodged in midstride. Frankly, Toph would've killed him if he told her that Ti had gotten away because a little thing like blindness—Sokka could even picture her scowling face at the news and shuddered. He quickly turned and raced after the blurry shape he pegged as Ti. "No. You. Don't!" He dove forward and shoved his blade through Ti's right shoulder.

Ti screamed and fell forward, and Sokka fell after him. Quickly, the Water Tribe warrior reached around and hugged Ti's legs with a death grip. The waterbender began to thrash around, but Sokka held on, despite being kicked in the chin at least twice in the process. While Sokka kept bouncing up and down thanks to Ti's struggling, he noticed Kahn had run over and thrown himself across his brother's back. With a grunt, he reached out and grabbed Ti's arms and forced them against his back, successfully pinning him.

"No more Ti. You can't bend—you can't move. We got you." Kahn mumbled. "Please, just stop."

"Jus-just because I can't move my hands," Ti managed to glance over his shoulder and give his brother a chilling glare. "doesn't mean I can't _bend_." Sokka's blood went cold at the tone of his voice. _What . . . ?_ Suddenly, Ti jerked his backward and suddenly, the stream that had been coming out of the water tower shuddered and began to readjust its aim from the ground to Kahn. _You have got to be kidding~!_ Sokka managed to think before the water slammed itself into Kahn's chest and knocked him back. Kahn grunted as he fell towards Sokka who quickly pushed himself off of Ti's legs to Ti's left side—as much as he wanted to break Kahn's fall, he also didn't want to risk being frozen together.

True enough, the second Ti's hands were freed, he had been trying to get to his feet. That done, a rapid hand gesture later and the pillar of water drenched Kahn—and another gesture later, Kahn found himself frozen to the roof's floor.

"Kahn!" Hina cried from her spot by Ao. "Ti, what the fuck is wrong with you?"

Ti just ignored her. "Kahn, _please_, just stay down. Just let me go."

Sokka glanced down at the frozen Kahn; he had only just barely missed getting frozen himself. Fortunately, Ti seemed a bit too caught up in pleading with his younger brother to pay attention to a "helpless little nonbender. " He was also a bit too caught up in the moment to notice that while he had been manipulating the water tower's stream, he had gotten wet himself . . . . Fortunately, Sokka didn't even have to say anything—Hina was already on her feet and, with a sweep of her arms, the water on Ti began to freeze. He grunted as he snapped out of his emotional state; he began to rip his long sleeved tunic off before the ice could expand too much.

Unfortunately for him, Sokka was already on the move. While Ti's focus had momentarily shifted to his ripping off the sopping remnants of his tunic, Sokka had lunged forward and successfully stabbed through the waterbender's left wrist—had he had a colder heart, Sokka knew he could've completely removed the hand and greatly reduce Ti's bending prowess, but even despite the situation, he couldn't bring himself to cross that line. As it was, all this stabbing through actual flesh was discombobulating; the resistance, the slight tugging of muscle tissue as the blade stabbed through—it just felt wrong, but Sokka couldn't let himself get too soft. Not with this much on the line.

Ti screamed and began to stumble, but Sokka didn't wait for him to regain his balance. After the Water Tribe warrior swiftly yanked his sword out (he didn't want to sever the wrist and if Ti kept stumbling, it would've happened), he reached out with his free hand and gripped Ti's injured wrist. He planted his feet firmly on the ground and, with a quick breath to collect himself, twisted the wrist until he heard a snapping noise.

The whole process had only taken two seconds.

Ti's scream cut out as the pain overwhelmed him; his nerves were likely shutting down for his sanity's sake. No matter how good a fighter, not many could take a broken limb and shake it off immediately. The waterbender's brief mental reboot gave Sokka amble time to push Ti away from himself and leap an extra foot away from Ti's stumbling form. "Hina, freeze him!"

"Don't have to tell me, idiot! What do you think I'm doing?" Hina growled as she bent down and quickly stood up, summoning the water splattered all around the water tower and herself into the air. Venomously, she shifted her weight and hurled it all at Ti, who was amply soaked. She quickly took a deep breath and finished the job by expelling it towards her former friend.

The result was immediate. Ti seemed to collect his wits enough to realize what was happening, but a second later, it was too late for him to do anything about it—he was frozen from head to toe, and, for added measure, his feet were frozen to the roof. Sokka was subconsciously reminded of Katara's various waterbending misadventures when she was younger—almost all of them ended with himself, the innocent, lovable bystander, in much the same rigid, freezing position Ti found himself. "Time out, jerk." Hina glared and Sokka shivered at the drop in temperature.

"Is he really immobile in there?" Sokka ventured. "No chance of him slightly wiggling his fingers or something and breaking out?"

Hina shook her head. "No; he was too thoroughly covered with water—odds are, the ice is literally covering every square inch of space. At this rate, he'd be stuck there for two years or something and not realize a day's gone by."

"Oh." _Like Aang's ice berg sphere thing we found him in_. Well, with any luck, the authorities would be there soon enough to free Ti . . . and hopefully this case'll escalate his and Toph's reputations enough to get a private interrogation with him. _That can wait . . ._, Sokka wearily thought as he sneezed. He really need to get adjusted to the cold again . . . . "Maybe you should check on Kahn? He could probably just melt his way out, but it'll take him like another half hour . . . "

"Oh, right." Hina flushed a little despite the situation and hurried over Ao's side to Kahn's. Slowly, she began to unfreeze portions of the ice—from experience, Sokka knew that you didn't get unfrozen all at once, for fear of shock and other such medical reasons Gran Gran had explained and he had dutifully tuned out. His gaze wandered over to Ao's crumbled form. Sokka felt guilty—after all, he had roped the firebender into this mess and now he wound up paying the heaviest toll. _Hopefully Hina had managed to save something . . ._, Sokka thought; otherwise, to some degree, he and Toph were just as responsible for his injury and inability to work as Ti was.

"Ao's going to be okay, by the way." Hina must've noticed where he was looking and the guilty look on his face. "I managed to restore most of his muscle function—he may not be able to pull elaborate pipa solos, but otherwise, he should be fine."

Sokka visibly slumped with relief. "Thank the spirits." At least that was okay . . . .

"What about the earthbender?" Hina asked as she shifted her focus from Kahn's unfrozen hand to his wrist.

"What?"

"You know, Ti's partner."

Sokka's mental gears kickstarted and he gapped. "Shit!" Without missing a beat, he sprinted right in-between Hina and frozen Kahn and the ice pillar that was Ti, towards the exit.

_Please, PLEASE, let Toph be okay_, he thought as he slammed the door open. _I'm coming Toph!_

. . .

_Well, this could be a bit easier_, Toph thought as she dodged yet another one of Bu's rocks—except this time, instead of just letting fly past her, she reached out a hand and, with a grunt of effort, relaxed her arm so that she caught it versus it just breaking her arm. With a quick shift of her weight, she hurled the rock back at Bu. Bu saw this somehow (Toph could've sworn that she had heard Fuin turn off the lights just after the tenant meeting, but she couldn't be sure) and threw himself to the ground. _Perfect_.

Toph kicked the ground and dug her foot into the stone floor and a rock tent sprouted out of the floor and trapped the other earthbender. _Sweet—oh_, she thought as she felt the tent shake and Bu kicked one of the tent's walls through the air. She quickly crossed her wrists in front of her as she could both sense and hear as the wall flew towards her. She grunted as she forced it to break into pieces as it hit her, but it was still no problem—not for someone of her ability and endurance. The only problem was that she couldn't use any of her bigger moves, for fear of bringing the building down on them or taking the fight out to the street where civilians could be injured. So she was stuck here for the time being, on the defensive.

_Fuck that_, she growled as she sensed Bu hurling his bulky self towards her. She stomped on the ground and raised a dust screen—fortunately, Fuin was not exactly the type to waste hard-earned ripped off gold on a cleaning service, so she had plenty to work with. Quickly, she forced open a hole underneath herself and covered it, all the while Bu swore quietly under his breath. It was a shame, really; normally earthbenders were more of the grunting, yelling smack talk sort—thus far, she had barely gotten two words out of the man. Still, at least he didn't have her senses, otherwise trapping herself underground could just as easily backfire.

It paid off though; she just had to bide her time until he stepped on top of her hiding place just . . . like . . . _that!_ She bent low and then shot to her full height and the ground underneath her responded accordingly. She was hurled from her whole and, blindly, punched upwards, right into his armpit. He yelled briefly and tried to punch her with his unwounded arm; but she had already pushed herself off his torso with her legs and, for two or three uncomfortable seconds, she was in the air. The second her feet touched the ground, she threw two rocks in Bu's direction; hopefully, the dust screen was still up and he wouldn't see them coming.

Unfortunately, while Bu still couldn't see the oncoming missiles, he could hear them as they whistled through the air. As he tried to catch his breath from Toph's punch to his torso, he threw himself to the side and, from the sound of his, began to draw something from on his person—probably a blade of some kind, if the metallic resonance she felt was any indication. Not wanting to tip her hand by metalbending the damn thing in half yet (she could all but hear Sokka's smirking tone saying "cover, cover" on loop), she reluctantly opted to instead duck behind Fuin's desk. A second later, the metal object sailed right past where her head had been.

Suddenly, Bu made a quick gesture and _the object's trajectory changed_. "What the hell—!" Toph spat as she threw herself to the floor and the metal object stabbed into the wooden desk. She panted for a second—_this son of a bitch can metalbend_, she thought quickly, but she shook her head—she had to keep moving; if she stayed in one place for too long—she rolled to her left as the ground where she had just been began to crumble. Her hand twitched; if only she could use her usual moves, this guy'd be toast. Still, Toph hadn't become as good as she was by bitching—but what would Sokka do in a situation like this? Probably get the guy talking.

"A metalbender, huh? Impressive. I've heard of people like you." There, nothing gets someone talking quite like a compliment, or so her mother had told her, all those years ago. "I'll be honest, I didn't even think it was possible."

Bu snorted; Toph was willing to bet her dust screen had dissipated and his vision had returned. From what she could sense, the man was slowly inching his way towards the desk; if he thought he was going to take her by surprise, he had another thing coming.

"Once you widen your of thinking about the elements, you'll find materials in the most unlikely of places. Take waterbending for example—what is blood, but water that's inside people? Likewise, what is metal but refined earth?"

"Oh, so now you're talking to me; and here I thought you were too stupid to talk." Toph reflexively retorted. Fortunately, Bu didn't seem offended by the remark.

"It's not that I'm stupid—I'm just picky about my conversations; I'm not some villain you hear about in the old tales. I don't monologue about my plans. Though I am impressed you dodged my knife—most people don't notice that it's coming back at them before it's too late."

"What can I say? I know a guy with a boomerang."

"Really? Fascinating—now, perhaps you could tell me something—how did you catch onto me?"

"It wasn't that difficult." She called back. "From the descriptions of the Dragon's coming and going, we figured that there had to a two man team involved. Though the real kicker was when your partner was stupid enough to waterbend when he was attacking our party—was that planned, by the way? I doubt it; you seemed just as surprised as anyone else there. Clever, if you did that on purpose somehow. But frankly, you were the only earthbender around really and you happened to be the guy who helped with the building's plumbing and other shit—you were kinda obvious, if you think about it."

Right after she finished, Bu kicked the ground and the stone floor under the desk flew up and slammed the desk into the ceiling. The second Toph was robbed of her cover, a barrage of rocks flew her way. By now, Toph could sense that the floor beneath them was growing thinner—they were using too much of it for their ammunition—she couldn't risk using any more of it to cover herself with a full shield. Instead, she tried rolling again—in mid-roll, however, she stealthily shot her own rock; it was small and pointed, like a cone, and before Bu could move, it stabbed him right in the thigh.

The earthbender muffled a scream and all the barraging rocks fell to the ground as he was overcome with pain. _I can't risk him breaking out of another crevice—I'm just going to have to handcuff him or something_, she thought as she took a note from the Dai Lee's book and quickly crafted two stone fists which, a second later, she hurled towards the distracted Bu. He glanced up as the hands flew, gripped his shoulders on their way past, and slammed him against the wall behind him. Quickly, Toph sent four more in rapid succession that slammed into and bruised other parts of his arms—however, the two that were aimed at his legs missed when he swung his lower half forward towards Toph with what must've been abs of steel.

A second later, he slammed his foot to the ground and kicked two stones right at Toph, who dodged. Again, she reached out with her senses and seized control of the stones before they slammed into the wall and, with a twist of her head, sent them flying right back towards Bu's torso. With a sickening _thud_, both stones enveloped him, further trapping him against the wall.

"Shit!" Bu cursed and Toph smirked; this would not last much longer.

She sent some more rocks to trap his legs; unfortunately, his head was still free and he made use of it. With every lift of his head, the floor would rise under Toph's feet, but her earthbending made them easy to avoid. "How the hell are you doing that?" Bu finally spat as she closed the distance between them.

"Unlike you, I don't get hung up on what I see." She smiled as she stabbed her hands into the stone wall on either side of Bu's head, gripped it, and with a grunt of effort, pulled out some of the stone. A second later, she had the stones combined into a single sheet, which she stretched over Bu's jaw and mouth and sealed back to the wall. "There, that should keep your head from moving."

Bu struggled against the restraints. "Don't worry; I'm almost through with you." She tensed her hands and "glanced" at the stone fists that kept Bu's arms against the wall; and then she began to squeeze.

Like clockwork, the stone hands began to tighten.

The trapped earthbender's screams were muffled by the stone restraint, but Toph could still vividly hear his pain. Her squeeze tightened and a series of _pops_ resounded from Bu's arms as they broke in four different places; the cracking sounds of his hands breaking were not far behind.

Bu shrieked but Toph just shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I can't have you bending; enough people have gotten hurt in this mess, and you'd only make things worse."

The other earthbender didn't respond, most likely due to going into shock. Toph frowned; she may have won the fight, but she still felt distinctly uncomfortable with the lengths she had to go to. Bu's screams still rang in her ears, to say nothing of the _pops_ and _cracks_.

"Toph?" Sokka's familiar heartbeat resounded from behind her. She said nothing as he walked to her side. "I see you got him—is he still, you know . . ."

"Alive?" She didn't have to see to know that Sokka was nodding awkwardly. "Yeah; he just passed out after I shattered most of the bones in his arms."

"Why?" Sokka's voice was quiet, but it was also not accusing or condemning; if anything, it sounded weary.

"I couldn't take the risk that he'd somehow force his way out of the restraints—I may be the best, but he was good; good enough that people would only get hurt if I had to seriously fight him. I didn't have a choice."

Sokka sighed. "I get it. We had to freeze Ti to the roof to get his limbs to stop moving. Hina's up there now, keeping him on ice."

Toph shot her friend a look. "Ti? I thought Kahn was our guy."

Sokka snorted. "Long story, but suffice to say that more than one plot twist showed up, but it worked out."

It was silent for a second. "Was anyone hurt?" Toph finally ventured.

The Water Tribe warrior nodded. "Ao had his arms electrocuted, but Hina says she was able to get to him before the damage got too severe. He'll lose some movement, but not enough to stop daily activities. He'll still be able to take care of himself just fine. But otherwise, outside of being wet and freezing, most of us got out okay." His voice lowered a bit. "You?"

She shook her head. "Nah; who do you think you're talking to, Snoozles?"

"Nice—but there's no way in hell I'm cleaning this place up." He paused and she could hear his stiff bones crack slightly as he likely glanced up. "Is that seriously Bu's desk stuck in the ceiling?"

"Yeah?" Toph could tell that he was giving her one of his trademark suspicious glances.

"Was that your doing?" Smiling a little, she shook her head. The Water Tribe warrior sighed. "Oh good; either way, I was going to tell Fuin that Bu did it, but this way I'm not lying."

Toph chuckled and a companionable silence fell between them. Finally, Toph reluctantly admitted, "It was a pain in the ass to limit myself though. There aren't enough materials or space for me to fight on my full scale and I really don't want to have to keep breaking the arms of every bender we'll fight."

Sokka nodded again. "Yeah, I can imagine. I'll think of something." There it was; Mr. Dependable on the job. With any luck, he'd come up with something sooner rather than later—perhaps the police could give them some pointers about city fighting. As proud as Toph was, she had matured enough to take advice from others—that didn't mean she didn't mock them in the process though; maturity only goes so far, after all.

"What made you so sure he'd go for the records anyway?" Toph asked.

"Simple." Sokka shrugged. "I was banking on them being involved with the bender thing Aang's having us look into; if they were trying to go after certain people, they wouldn't want to draw attention to the fact that the missing tenants are all benders, so therefore, he'd try to destroy the records, so the connection among the missing would hopefully be overlooked by the police. Who's ever behind this isn't ready yet to go public." He went on to describe Ti's outburst and motive for assisting Bu. "Essentially, he just wanted to help his brother, which is why he attacked our party thing. From what I can figure, he caught wind of our suspicions of Hina and he didn't want his friend and Kahn's love interest to take the rap for his own actions. So he must've either gotten Bu here for the event or Bu had been here already and Ti managed to talk him into changing targets."

"Use bending to destroy the threat of benders." Toph frowned. "That seems a bit crazy."

"Maybe . . . ." Sokka trailed off. Toph waited for him to finish the thought, but he remained silent; she didn't push the issue.

Together, the two friends stood there in the littered office for another ten minutes until, finally, Toph winced. "There's something big coming; some kind of four legged animal thing." A second later, Sokka could hear its claws scrapping over the pavement.

"Stop, Nyla." A smooth, distantly familiar voice commanded and the scrapping came to halt just outside the building.

"What're we supposed to do now? The rest of the squad's like ten minutes behind us." Complained a gruff, deep voice. A man for sure.

"Not my fault those slowpokes can't keep up with us." There was a click of shoes falling on pavement as she hopped off her mount's back.

"No way." Sokka gapped as he poked his head around Bu's restrained form and peeked out the open doorframe. "It can't be . . . ."

"What? You know these guys?" Toph hissed.

"You don't remember?" Sokka hissed back. The earthbender raised her eyebrow and put on her best "obviously, dumbass" face. Sokka must've taken the hint, because he began to respond, until he was cut off by the sound of knocking.

"This is the police; we were called about intruders in this building by someone named Hina—is she present? If so, may we talk to her?" Called the gruff voice. Sokka looked at Toph, who shrugged. "C'mon guys, I can see you in there; this dump needs to get some kind of door." Silence. A sigh. "You have until I get to the count of three; after that, we're coming in whether you like it or not."

"Er, that won't be necessary! We caught the guys." Sokka called out in his Wang Fire voice.

"Regardless sir, we were called and so we have to fill out a report—them's the rules, so if we could talk to you for a few minutes . . . you?" The gruff voiced guy must've looked through the door and saw them. "What are you doing here?"

"Hey Chit Sang, nice to see you too." Sokka sighed. _Chit Sang? Oh yeah . . . the creepy old guy Sokka and Zuko broke out of the Boiling Rock_. "I see June's with you." Toph suppressed a grin; she thought that smooth voice had sounded familiar.

"Oh great." June groaned as she too walked in. "Just what we need. Why is it you guys keep being pains in my ass? Can't you kiddies take a hint?" She glared at them. "What are you doing here anyway? Besides catching our targets." She turned her gaze towards the unconscious Bu. "Good job, but a tad brutal; inefficient." Was that respect Toph heard in the former bounty hunter's tone? "Seriously, why are you here? As Avatar groupies, shouldn't you be somewhere less shitty? Adoring idiots hanging on your every word?"

"We don't want anyone to know we're here—speaking of, what are you two doing here? Last we heard, you were a bounty hunter and you," Sokka turned the question right back at the two officers as he shifted towards Chit Sang. "had disappeared."

"We're with the police, if you must know." June snorted. "They pay surprisingly well, for a civil servant gig; but with Nyla's nose, it was cheaper for them to just hire me instead of keep bringing me in as a consultant—and I happen to like job security, almost as much as I like gold; where better to find scumbags than a new city? So I got partnered up with this geezer here."

"I'm not that old!" Chit Sang snapped. "You're only three years younger than me, you know; not my fault prison ages a guy." He glanced back at them; Sokka was still waiting for an answer. "Anyway, there's not much to tell. After you guys broke me out, I got to thinking about how I got stuck there in the first place—you know, after being framed and all the that bullshit. After a while of hiding from the Fire Nation, I promised myself something: if I lived through the end of the war, I would use my second chance to stop anyone else from being wrongly locked up like some stray dog. Soon as I heard that this police was hiring, I made my way here and finally got stuck with this snotty bitch."

"You're walking back to the station." June deadpanned. "Keep it up and Nyla may just paralyze you again." Chit Sang scowled and grumbled under his breath. "So why the hell are you here?"

"We can't tell you." Sokka said carefully. "But I will say that it's Avatar business."

June and Chit Sang glanced at each other. "Not good enough. You have until the rest of the squad gets here to give us some reason why we shouldn't just tell them who you are and let them force it out of you the old fashioned way at the station."

Sokka glanced down at Toph who shrugged. She trusted his judgment and he was supposed to be the group's talker anyway; she doubted anything she could say would help much. Sokka scowled as he realized Toph wasn't going to help and turned back to June.

"Okay, look, we can tell you. _Later_. It's a long story, but we could probably use your help. But until then, we _need_ you to keep quiet about us; we'll . . . owe you one."

There was a silence as June and Chit Sang considered this. Toph could feel Sokka's heartbeat increase every second the other two said nothing; she could begin to sense the rest of the squad turning onto their road. They probably had two minutes at the most. "Well?" Sokka finally demanded.

"Make it two favors and you've got a deal." Chit Sang said. "One for both of us."

Sokka hissed in frustration, but nodded. "Fine! Fine; whatever—so long as Toph and I can interview these guys on our own. We promise."

"Perfect." June purred, and then she looked out onto the street. "Down here, you dumbasses; you're five minutes late; Chief Oda's gonna have your asses if you don't hurry up and do your damn jobs!"

"Yes ma'am!" Came the chorus of officers and the sound of footfalls reverberated throughout the street as the officers increased their pace.

Sokka and Toph shared a look and sighed. "I guess this is out of our hands now, huh?"

"Yeah." Toph nodded. "But hey: we won, right? First case solved."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Sokka was probably giving her a tired smile. "Though I wish that at least _one_ of our adventures didn't end with the cops dragging us away." That said, he sat on the ground and waited for the professionals to take things from there.

…

**Look forward to the aftermath and let me know what you think of the additions of Chit Sang and June! Personally, I think they're going to wind up being more the Juliet/Lassiter duo to Sokka/Toph's Shawn and Gus, however more illegal they may be inclined. Still, if you have any tips as to how to write them better, please do not hesitate to tell me. Or you can tell me to go screw myself—that works; input is valuable, after all! I cannot promise that the next chapter will be up before the end of the week, but by the end of August, it will be up for sure. Let me know if there's anything you guys might want to see in future arcs! Thanks again so much for your patience.**


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